Monsters come in all shapes and sizes - the ones under the
bed; the gremlins of self-doubt and fear that whisper in our ear; and real
monsters that abuse and mistreat others while covered in a veil of celebrity
and genius. Yes, the second session of Dramafest had some serious themes on its
mind even when the delivery was light and comic…
My Socks Stay On
You know that little voice in your head, the interior
monologue of your life, the one that encourages, nags, distracts, inspires, and
occasionally cripples you? Well here that voice is represented in the flesh in
all its insistence. Two people meet on a dinner date each with their “little
voice” tagging along to provide witty commentary, insight or horror at how the
evening is going. He is a school teacher who is a serial first time dater yet
can’t remember the bemused waitress’ name. She is the older sister of one of
his students. They share all the awkward moments such meetings usually entail
until, decorum be damned, they declare that they like each other before
amusingly listing all their bad traits and foibles. It’s a fun premise and
quite sweet in its execution and resolution. I thought more could have been
made of the actors playing the ‘voices’ to really make this playful and the
sister-set-me-up-with-her-schoolteacher exposition was a little laboured. Other
than that this was a charming start to the evening. Directed by Matthew Randall
and I believe written by the actors, this starred Hannah Moran, Annabel
Maclean, Josh Lang, Brendan Ellis… and the uncredited waitress, for Stirling
Players Youth.
Flop Cop (10 minute
spotlight)
Is there anything potentially more monstrous than a tortured
artistic soul allowed to vent his misunderstood genius on an unsuspecting
public? Yes, that was a rhetorical question - well spotted! Thankfully, a
special theatre division of the police force has been created to tackle such
heinous crimes. This was a short two-hander that plays directly to a theatre
crowd – a tight-lipped officer confronts a flamboyantly over-the-top playwright
who threatens to inflict his latest monologue on the world. Full of sly
in-jokes and two very contrasting acting styles this worked well though it
could have been tightened even further by taking out some repetition in the
dialogue especially by the playwright. Unfortunately the actors weren’t named
in the programme but this was produced by the Actors' Hub.
Picasso’s Women
An excerpt from the full show that featured several
different women and their stories (played over multiple nights) this was an
impressive piece of theatre. The first thing that struck me is how precise and
dense the writing was - poetic, beautifully descriptive, and highly stylised.
It also incorporated French and Spanish as well as the breadth of English
firepower on display. The actresses Sharnya Thompson and Nadia Collins didn’t
miss a beat with the exacting requirements of the writing. Fairly quickly I
suspected that this was actually a monologue that had been assigned to two actors
to highlight the different ‘aspects’ of the one person (artist/photographer Dora
Maar), a suspicion confirmed afterwards by director Christine Ellis. This
worked well with Thompson the cool, still and in many ways sensuous side while
Collins was the more emotional and physically energetic of the two. This was
reflected in their costumes to give a literal representation of the ‘light and
shade’ at work here. Both actresses used the full space available to them and
the piece was very fluid with Thomson at times seeming to glide across the space
such was her measured pace. Yes, Picasso was a monster to this woman (and
others) as the confronting electro-shock therapy and “… then he hit me”
sequence clearly illustrated. Sad, powerful and oddly sensual this was
mesmerising work. Directed by Christine Ellis, it starred Sharnya Thompson and
Nadia Collins and was produced by Blak Yak Theatre Company.
4AM
The final production of the night was an ensemble piece
directed by Rebecca Cole and produced by Rupert Williamson, with ten young
actors on display. We meet all of the characters on stage at the beginning as
an early morning radio DJ reaches out to an audience that may not even be there.
After the opening introductions there are vignettes that cover: a lone jogger,
two girls having a sleepover, two guys doing likewise while playing word
association games, a modern day Romeo & Juliet who wonder whether to
contact each other to declare their undying love, a teen who is afraid of the
monster under the bed, and a girl who writes to a knife company complaining
about the quality of their product as she slowly bleeds out from slashing her
wrists. All of this taking place at 4am. These vignettes are loosely linked by
the DJ’s on air presence and cover loneliness, fear and the monsters we all
sometimes have to deal with.
There were some interesting choices but the balance doesn’t
quite work as the suicide strand, while well performed, seemed too clever for
its own good given the weight of the topic at hand. It also tended to overwhelm
the lighter vignettes though the Romeo and Juliet antics did provide welcome
comic relief. The monsters under the bed strand was the none-too-subtle
thematic message as the teen eventually protects his monster from the cops
amusingly brought in to evict it (in an almost A Clockwork Orange style parody)
declaring that its existence confirms that he has survived yet another day.
Yes, we should embrace our monsters and not seek to destroy them as they are a
part of us. The DJ storyline was well handled and I particularly liked how the
actors all filtered back to their starting positions to give a nice symmetry to
the piece. Indeed, there was a lot to like here and it did give an interesting insight
into the issues our youth have to face. The young actors in question were
Rebecca Cole, Jenna Verryn, Luke Wilson, Harry McGrath, Dani Fynn, Harry
Sanderson, Lara Borshoff, Tashi Stewart, Elise Wilson, and Nick Morlet.
Adjudicator Adam T Perkins gave excellent and constructive notes
for all four productions and one point he highlighted across the board was
pacing and ‘earn your pauses’. Finally, it was very pleasing to see a really
good crowd in for this session. I was so busy chatting I left half a cider
behind the bar at intermission and by the time I finished discussing the
evening the bar was closed! Sacrificed for a good cause methinks…
Dramafest continues Friday night, 7.30pm at Hackett Hall in
Floreat.
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