In her youth, Churchill started writing with feminist or Brechtian themes, but in her later years has swung around to the more surreal and ‘open writing’ approach.

This 95-minute collection of vignettes, produced by Theatre Arts at Curtin, can be seen at Hayman Theatre Upstairs, in building 102, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley. The parking in Carpark B13 is free after 5.00 pm. The performances are nightly at 7.00 pm until the 5^th March at the low-ticket price of $15.

The set was designed by Sally Phipps with input from Amy Tamati, and built by the Hayman stalwart, Ian Stewart. Sally has built a low-level stage, with three sides of plain white flats, allowing the audience to spy effectively in private, into the white box. There are three flush, white doors leading into the box. Half a dozen, 60 cms white wooden cubes symbolised such diverse objects as ‘hedgehogs’ and ‘cinema seats’. Dylan Dorotich and Sally Davies managed the stage.

Maddy Mullins conceived the massive selection of costumes. With the show being so fast moving, one wonders how the characters managed to change in time for their next appearance. I suspect that the assistant stage managers (Jack Bengough, Paris Fields, Ellen Parfrey) were also acting as dressers for the cast.

Lighting and projection designer, George Ashforth had a myriad of well thought out lighting combinations. He employed under floor lights and colourful lasers, as well as the normal LEDs. George also provided difficult to obtain videos, and projection slides. Monique Bertolini operated the lighting flawlessly. Ryan Hunt’s audio design was excellent.

With 57 different ‘Acts’, some lasting a couple of minutes and others as short as even ten seconds, I will simply list the hard working and impressive actors, who had roughly 10 parts each.

 

Lauren Beeton

Declan Brown

Eloise Carter

Chelsea Gibson

Anna Lindstedt

Holly Mason

Nelson Mondlane

Jess Nyanda Moyle.

Director Teresa Izzard and her assistant director Becca Jackson were faced with a cliff face to tackle in presenting this play. The playwright has not created any characters, names and often, even the gender is not mentioned. There are no direction instructions, nor hints on how to approach the extremely varied topics – just dialogue. Subjects like sex – it had to be there – along with torture, children’s problems, marriage and anti-vivisection are all included in the three-score topics. The director had to invent the scenarios and then encourage the cast to add any of their own experiences to the story threads. This major challenge was proficiently conquered with the whole cast giving the numerous characters instant and recognisable personalities.

The show went at a tremendous pace, with only two or three of the stories not working (the writer perhaps being a little too adventurous). A very enjoyable night at the theatre, with something a little offbeat. It is always pleasant to see a team trying something new.

This 80-minute (not surprisingly) play is being presented by the Theatre Arts Major Students at the Hayman Theatre Upstairs, Building 102, Curtin University, Bentley.

Performances commence nightly at 7.00 pm until Saturday 10^th October.

Follow the tea light trail from the free carpark, number B13 to the theatre.

Alistair Kennedy’s set is a high-class restaurant, built on a parquet floor revolve. The walls are stretched muslin, lit with blue light – thus allowing the action behind, to be seen on occasions. The scenery being built by Alistair Kennedy, George Ashforth, Reef Jennings and Georgia Lewis. To one side sits a musician (Eleanor Davidson) playing a flute. On the other side of the stage is the dining room in Louis’s home.

       In a restaurant, a nerdy, pedantic author, Louis (Kane Parker) is trying to broach the topic of marriage with his girlfriend, Claire (Lauren Beeton); however, the enthusiastic waiter (Jeremy Bunny) is determined to explain the ‘specials of the day’ to the couple. Louis has no culinary knowledge and relies on Claire to help him choose his food. It becomes obvious that Louis has not had anything published since he was at school, so he has now become a pathetic theatre reviewer.

      Later that night, back at home, Louis’s father (Alex Gerrans) is exasperated by his loser-of-a-son using up valuable space and oxygen in the house, and so evicts him. Tearfully, Louis’s Mum (Kayla MacGillivray) presses a box of his belongings into her son’s arms before sending him forth.

     Desperate and unemployed, Louis goes to see a major agent and publisher, Dan Kurtz (Tristan McInnes). Bumptious, Dan relies 100% on his personal assistant, Carol (Kharla Fannon) to run his office.

     After a tragic accident, it is decades before we catch up with Louis again. We find him shopping for flowers at Mathilde’s Florist Shop. He waits as Mathilde (Caitlin McFeat) serves a customer, a very proud mother (Ashleigh Ryan) looking for the best.

      What will happen to this major failure in life? Will he ever find the perfection he seeks?

Karen Cook’s lighting design (operated by Mai Han), along with Ben Wehrheim’s sound effects (mentored by Ben Collins) brought quite a few smiles to the audience in the restaurant scene. The impressive autumn effect was the work of Phoenix Hudson and Terence Smith, supervised by stage manager Jen Scullion. The numerous props (Shannen Santos) and well thought-out costumes (Alina Sulkowski) added greatly to the atmosphere of the play.

The actors were directed by lecturer, Phil Miolin with movement choreographed by Teresa Izzard; the action flowed at a wonderful pace. The script, which was aimed at mocking the way theatre productions are chosen and how they are produced, gave the actors a chance to do asides to the audience, and subtly ham up some situations. This dry humour was very well presented, bringing numerous belly laughs.

As well as mocking reviewers, the script contained an absolutely gross but hysterical optometrist’s nightmare – so I felt quite at home.

The standard of acting was first class, not a single weak link. Special performance mention of the pathetic Louis (Kane), who was physically abused throughout the play and his partner Claire (Lauren). The unrelenting waiter (Jeremy) and Dan (Tristan) who gave the most hyper performance of the year – tremendous.

This is a most original play in so many aspects, although a brief story thread had an odd similarity to the ending of Melissa Cantwell’s ‘The Song was Wrong’. Very well written, with some weird characters.

Treat yourself to a low priced ticket, and have 80 minutes of raucous fun. Certainly worth seeing.