Final Two Review by Will Winter

The reality of reality dating shows is always the real grab. Audiences watch the colourfully ditzy contestants fall for the hunky beefcake because it’s fascinating to watch how people contort themselves in the early stages of infatuation, but also because we want to know that their lives and their love will extend beyond the edges of the screen and into true romance. Final Two, staged at Qtopia’s Loading Dock from the 22nd to 26th of September, exists on the cusp of this elusive precipice between unreality and reality.

It follows the final two contestants in ‘This Funny Feeling’, a long-standing stalwart in the canon of trashy dating television. Adara Eyre plays Chloe, the sweatpants-wearing weed smoker who can’t quite believe she’s made it this far in the competition, while Shaz (Icarus O’Keefe) is an absolute weapon on the show, a lifelong fan who knows ‘the exact wine and cheese combo to dull the other girl’s sparkles’ and win the heart of their eligible bachelor. All is going smoothly, except it’s the last night before the finale, and Shaz has a vision that they need to perform a seance.

They’re not exactly friends with each other, but someone from another plane of existence is calling out to Shaz in a dream, and Chloe is the only person she can talk to honestly without it getting back to production. After agreeing to a ritual which involves touching nail tips and singing ‘California Gurlz’, they awaken the spirit of Vanessa, played icily by Atlas Morrow. Vanessa was set to win the first season of This Funny Feeling, and was killed in an accident by a reckless production assistant. Now, Vanessa has returned, seemingly seeking revenge.

Well, Vanessa’s intentions are not quite established at first. There’s quite a nimble twist to what seems like a relatively rote plot here, involving the discovery of Elliot Page’s transmasc memoir ‘Pageboy’, which muddies the ethics of the show entirely. Sure, a paranormal interference threatening to derail your romantic masterplot is objectively annoying, but at what point do you put your dreams aside so someone else can live out theirs?

Arthur Brown’s script follows this thread beautifully, taking unexpected journeys into the emotions of these characters while still upholding the fun and spookiness of the plot itself. The titular final two girls complement each other well, Eyre playing Chloe relatively straight-faced and logical while O’Keefe’s Shaz has a wistful and slightly unhinged devotion to securing her happy ending. O’Keefe also has a great doe-eyed look about her, and you really believe that Shaz would spare nothing to manifest her dream come true, even if she herself doesn’t believe it to be real.

Euan Howells’ host character Matt Maker is necessarily slippery, with a believably hollow brain and placid attitude that makes him the right kind of pliable for reality TV producers. He’s still charming though, just enough for us to be slightly sympathetic about his paranormal taunting. Alejandro Sarminetro Castro’s surprising turn as Declan, though, is the real stunner, possessing that same veneer of male emptiness but with a generous dosage of heart too. Both of these actors have great physical comedy, and navigate the space in fun and exciting ways.

It’s a fun show all up, finding an unexpected but sweetly fitting ending for all of the characters. Even though none of them end up where they thought they would at the start, it’s still easy to believe they each got the real happy ending they deserve, and isn’t that a sweet feeling?

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Will Winter attended Final Two at Qtopia on Tuesday 22 September. Final Two plays until Saturday 26 September.