A sold out black box theatre space and ten minutes to do pretty
much whatever you want.
Now GO!
The prospect must surely be quite daunting but it was a
diverse range of pieces tonight, from drama to comedy to dance.
First up was Flaming
Youth, directed by Lucy Clements and performed by Kieran Wych and Chloe
Evangelisti. Here the brother (by adoption) of a young woman is urgently
summoned to her aid. There is the usual sibling angst until the woman drops a
bombshell on what really happened to her. The young man wants to kill her
boyfriend until another twist comes to the fore. The problem for me was that
there wasn’t enough emotional heft here to convince me of the bombshell in the
first place. So when the ‘twist’ came it didn’t feel surprising or affect me in
the way that was intended. That said, extremely difficult to explore the darker
aspects of sex and dating in such a short period of time.
The two performers walk off stage and are replaced by Zane
Alexander, Verity Softly and two beach chairs. His character likes her's but she
isn’t really interested. What follows is some lovely physical comedy as Alexander’s
character inches ever closer and even at one point makes a paper seagull to
impress her; mixed with some terse barbs from Softly’s increasingly annoyed
woman who just wants to enjoy the sunshine. That style of comedy that comes
from the inherent awkwardness of a situation and a character trapped within it.
The only query I had was that later in the piece Softly began to make asides to
the audience that weren’t perhaps necessary as both actors were very skilled in
conveying their character’s emotions and thoughts in a piece called It’s Only A…
Then we had Emma Marie Davis alone in the corner to begin Quiet. Tragically, she has been
pronounced an introvert which her mother fears will surely cripple her in life.
I liked that Davis was all backed up in the shadows and only slowly
moved to centre stage as she discovers an obsession to draw her into the world.
We soon learn this involves lots of yelling in the competitive realm of…
netball refereeing. Most amusingly all the signs used to signal infractions are
turned into a dance as Davis sings and charms us during her conversion to extroversion.
The first half ended with a very interesting slam poem and compelling
performance by Haydon Wilson in Contentment
in B Minor where he plays an alcoholic. I cringed at the start as he
accuses his wife of cheating and details his muscular response. This promised not to be
a likeable character by any stretch of the imagination. But then something
strange happened – there was an honesty and rawness here as the character
embraces who he is which revolves around, for better or worse, the copious
consumption of beer. It was a very good performance as it treaded the fine line
between audience aversion and engendering fascination in a character that
defied the usual expectations.
After a short interval we recommenced with solo performer,
Natalya Alessi who danced to the rhythmic sound of breathing in A Simple Act. Lithe and serene, this
was a celebration of the beauty of the human body in motion. Towards the end of
the piece a voiceover intoned interesting statistics about the amount of
breaths we take in the course of a lifetime performing different functions. The
true fascination, however, was in the mesmerising and elegant moves of Alessi
in the dimness, mood lighting provided stage right.
Chloe King and Claudia Tati followed in a piece written by
King and directed by Ali Roberts called Darling
Daughter. The apple of her mother’s eye (Tati) exhibits all the
recklessness of youth the moment mummy dearest leaves for nightshift work. She
finds herself in a certain predicament with a guy at school that is echoed in
King’s flashback retelling of her character’s own experiences as a girl the
same age. There is a lovely symmetry in the parallel trajectories here and both
actresses play multiple roles to flesh out the world of the tale. A heartfelt
ending as two generations come together over a shared experience years apart. It
was a well-structured and performed piece that made maximum use of the allotted
time.
Finally, another performance piece, this time by two male
(Russell Thorpe and Scott Elstermann) and two female dancers (Ayesha Kats and
Rikki Bremner) called It’s Strange To
Remember A Touch Over A Thought. This was a superb piece that not only
celebrated the human form but beauty in synchronisation and touch. The
suppleness and connection between the performers was absolutely enchanting as
they moved with sublime confidence to an electronic backing of songs. I found
this enthralling.
Then it was all over as the last dancer slid off stage and
the house lights came on. It was a terrific mix of quite different performances
that made the task of voting for a favourite very difficult. Yes, there is a
competitive element to all this as audience favourites get to perform again in
a Best Of night. If this is the quality to expect from all four programs then
those evenings will be quite something!
600 Seconds is at The Blue Room until 14 February, however, I
believe all remaining sessions are sold out. On this outing I can see why.
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