Bite Size

I reviewed Bite Size (performed at the Newtown Theatre as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival) over at Australian Stage - you can read the review here.

Ill Met at Workshorts

Oh look! A thing that is not a review!

My short play Ill Met By Moonlight, last seen in the 'Logues at Canberra Repertory Theatre, is getting its second production in Wollongong Workshorts. It's at the Wollongong Workshop Theatre in Gwynneville. If you feel anything like I do about Twilight, go and check it out.

Smashed

Smashed runs until 1 October at the SBW Stables, Kings Cross. By Lally Katz, directed by Clare Watson.

One thing is for sure: Lally Katz can write. Hot damn can she write. And she can - unlike many other writers who are very good in other media - write for the stage. She understands the art of writing for theatre. I've read Katz on the page before but I've never seen her work performed. She's great on the page, but on stage, she comes to life.

Smashed is lyrical and elegaic, a short play about friendship and memory, a play whose impact is heightened rather than hindered by its short length. (It only runs for 45 minutes - given Griffin's 7pm start, this means the play finishes before most others have begun. When you live far far away down the coast like I do, the value of this cannot be overstated.) It's the story of best friends Ruby and Hazel, who share one of those spectacularly intense friendships remarkable among teenage girls. Ruby is naive, innocent; Hazel is worldly, jaded. Both girls need the other. But they are living on borrowed time.

I love that this play is an exploration of friendship - female friendship more specifically. As a subject matter, friendship is often shafted by romantic relationships, given a back seat if it's explored at all. Female friendship is something that's often treated as suspicious - where it is treated in texts at all. One of the things I really liked about Smashed was that Hazel and Ruby's relationship is the most important relationship in either of their lives. Their friendship defines them, shapes them - their relationship is almost symbiotic, the two girls intrinsically linked, one unable to survive without the other. What affects one affects them both. They are two halves of the same whole.

Katz also raises interesting questions about what friendship really is. Every conversation, Hazel and Ruby note, is based on the echoes of conversations had before. A friendship is a collection of shared memories, of shared memory; but it is more than the sum of its parts. It is something far more weighty and valuable than the hours, minutes, seconds spent together. But what is left, Katz asks, when a friendship ends, but memories and ephemera?

If it's not already clear, I really, really liked the script, and you can bet I will be seeking out more of Katz's works in performance. I missed both Neighbourhood Watch and A Golem Story and I wish I hadn't. There's a certain fairy tale quality to Smashed which is completely enchanting, and this was enhanced by the doll's house-esque set. Coming into the theatre, I thought there was too much clutter on the stage - anyone who has been to the SBW Stables theatre knows how little that stage is. In retrospect, while it still might have been too busy for the stage, the set imbued the play with a sort of Angela Carter quality which really suited it.

Katherine Tonkin was good as Ruby, but the standout for me was Suzannah McDonald as Hazel. Her role was more difficult, as she effectively had to carry narrating duty and explain the concept of time travel behind the play (more props to Katz that she resisted the urge to turn this into an expository infodump o' doom). McDonald carried it off fantastically. She has a pixie-like, mischievous quality about her that was great for this character, and she resisted the tendency to overplay, which would have been easy. I hope to see her in more things.

In short, it's hard to pick out something I didn't like about Smashed. I saw it in preview and am seriously considering taking a different set of friends to see it again. This is a play that will resonate with many different people in many different ways. If you've ever had a friend, this play is for you.

Table of Knowledge

I reviewed The Table of Knowledge (Version 1.0 and Merrigong) for Australian Stage - you can read the review here.

Rainbow's End

I reviewed Rainbow's End at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (Riverside Theatres, part of the Merrigong 2011 season) - you can read the review here.

And No More Shall We Part

And No More Shall We Part runs until 3 September at the SBW Stables, Kings Cross. By Tom Holloway, directed by Sam Strong.

I am a student of romance novels. A PhD student. This means that I fill my days reading again and again (and again and again) about people falling in love, about commitment, about romance, about people devoting their lives to each other. This is my trade.

So trust me when I say that And No More Shall We Part is the most romantic play I have ever seen. It is also the most upsetting play I have ever seen.

And No More Shall We Part is the story of Pam (Linda Cropper) and Don (Russell Kiefel), a couple who have been married for a long time. Pam has a terminal illness, and she and Don need to figure out how to end their life together. She is determined to die with dignity. He is desperate not to lose the love of his life, and is finding it impossible to say goodbye to her.

This play is exquisite. I don't even know where to begin to talk about it. For the second half of it, my primary focus was not actually sobbing out loud. The love story aspect of the play is played down in the publicity, but while it's not a love story in the traditional sense, the devotion of Pam and Don to each other, the way it's shown that they would do anything for each other, is the most achingly romantic thing I have ever seen. And No More Shall We Part is heartbreaking, heartrending, beautiful, deeply, deeply affecting. It is visceral, raw - I have never been to theatre this intense, this emotive.

And it's not because this play tugs on the heartstrings. There are no cheap shots in Tom Holloway's script. This play is not an emotional rollercoaster. There is no rise and fall, no unnecessary grandiosity, no false hope. Instead, it is simply quiet tragedy, domestic, everyday. Writing, directing and acting have combined to their best effect in this play, creating theatre that transcends story to become nearly reality.

The one small criticism I could make of this play is that the stichomythia (short lines bantered back and forth) was sometimes handled too glibly by the actors - occasionally it didn't seem as though the actors were listening to what the other was saying. However, this problem was largely confined to the opening scenes of the play. The last scenes - where Pam decides to die, and Don, however unwilling, decides to help her do it - are absolutely heartbreaking. And just when you think it can't get any sadder... the end of the play... oh my God. There is no way I can express in the confines of this review how terribly, terrifyingly sad And No More Shall We Part is. Tom Holloway's writing, Sam Strong's direction, Linda Cropper and Russell Kiefel's acting - all these combine to make what is one of the most deeply moving pieces of theatre I have ever seen.

I cannot recommend this play highly enough. I was foolish enough not take tissues - seriously, listen to the warning Griffin have on their website. This play is exquisitely sad, deeply moving, and wonderful theatre.


PS: I was lucky enough to go along to the Inside The Rehearsal Room event Griffin held for this play a couple of months ago, and I really feel like it heightened my appreciation of the play. Props to Griffin for having such cool events - I highly recommend them!

PPS: You may have noticed that I'm writing a fair bit for Australian Stage now. I'll link to all my reviews there over here, as well as writing new reviews just for the Back Seat.

Unsex Me

I reviewed Unsex Me at Riverside Theatres in Parramatta for Australian Stage - you can read the review here.