Collyer specialises in controversial and adult plays, and this very funny production from Black Martini is no exception. Due to the lurid dialogue, this is an adult’s only production.

This two-hander can be seen at Studio 411, near car park 4, in Murdoch University, South Street in Murdoch. The season of this 55-minute play, runs nightly at 7.00 until Saturday 12^th November.

The year is about 2030, and the scene is an upmarket apartment, with marble walls. The room has a settee on one side of the stage, and a kitchen area on the other (set design, Thomas Dimmick with an original, special effect by Andrew David)

The production manager and lighting designer was Jess Serio, and stage manager – Ashleigh Barrow. Sound Design by Tay Broadley.

      Anjali (Shannon Rogers) is making a chocolate cake in the kitchen, when Ven (Hock Edwards) dressed in a bright orange protective work suit (costume design, Anna Weir) enters the room. He tells Anjali that he has finished the adjustments and that everything should work well from now onwards.

     Then a whimpering sound can be heard from one of the bedrooms. Ven explains that he does not know how the robot’s chip has picked up this fault, but everything else should be OK.

      Anjali, a brothel Madame, continues to chat to the computer repairman. She explains how business is tough for her and her lifelike robot prostitute and so she must find new ways to make a bit of extra money. Then, a phone call from a client changes her life.

 

The play’s director, Tay Broadley, and his assistant Sean Wcislo, have grasped the dry, black humour of this piece beautifully. The two actors have wisely underacted their parts, giving a hilarious ‘matter of fact’ attitude to the whole situation. Good solid performances.

The cleverly written, but weird script gradually feeds you scraps of the story, whilst keeping you in a state of limbo. You watch, wondering where the bizarre story is going, whilst filled with suspense desperate for the next morsel.

It is always good to see a new play that is a little bit different, with Black Martini; they give you something fresh each time.

She is also a member of Ensemble Studio Theater’s Youngblood, a group of emerging playwrights under the age of 30.

This 80-minute (no interval), Black Martini Theatre’s production can be seen for a sensible ticket price, in Murdoch University’s Studio 411, opposite car park 4 in Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch. The curtain rises at 7.00 pm each evening, until Saturday 11^th June.

Thomas Dimmick’s lounge room set design was representational of the New England 18^th century wood panelled rooms. There was a patio window with a rod curtain. In the corner was a toy box. Central stage was an Axminster runner carpet with several beautiful antique chairs.

Stage manager Rebecca Dilley, assisted by Sean Wcislo had one of the best stage teams I have seen in months. Even with major pieces of furniture, each member was totally focused and moved onto the stage, placed or removed the props and left, with no scene change taking more than 3 or 4 seconds. Superb work.

       Mrs March, Marmee (Maddy Jolly Fuentes) has gathered her four daughters in the sitting room. She tells them how their father had been wounded in the Civil War, and that she must go to his side. The girls’ faces showed their devastation at the news, however, when their mother left the room the mood changed.

      Happy but sickly Beth (Virginia Cole) coughs into her handkerchief and sets off to see elderly Mr Lawrence (Michael Casas) in an attempt to borrow money to pay for her mother’s trip.  Uncaring and self-centred, thirteen year old Amy (Claire Tebbutt) immediately complains about the economies that will be required to pay for the mother’s ticket. Meg (Cat Perez) starts to fantasise about meeting a man, because in their remote home she has never even met one.

      Meg decides that they should put on a play to cheer themselves up. Bolshie and politically inclined Jo (Shannen Precious), being the most verbose and snide, is insistent on playing the male part. Then like a gift from God, handsome, alluring Laurie (Hock Edwards) appears, Meg is excited, could this be her big chance? Unfortunately, Laurie sets off to travel the world. The family receive a visit from John, sorry, ‘call me Mr Brooke’ (Matthew Abercromby) – Meg is happy again.

     When the dashing German Professor Bhaer (Will Moriarty) arrives, Jo shuns his attentions. Will she never marry?

 

As you may gather, this play is NOT a version of Louisa May’s Civil War novel, ‘Little Women’, it is more of an anti-play. It mocks the mellifluous overtones of the original, being full of dry, sarcastic and disrespectful humour, in a superbly written, acerbic script.

Director, Jessica Serio, has presented a first-class comedy, by selecting a magnificent cast who fully understand the subtleties of the author’s writing. Jess has staged the play as though it were a BBC tv series, complete with fine costumes (costume design – Anna Weir) and clever lighting (design – Kiah Van Vlijmen). The choice of background music and sound effects by designer Tijana Šimić are perfect.

The cast enunciate and deliver their lines as would be expected for the original, but the brazen attitude of the daughters, and their outlook on life, is very much contemporary. The sisters can be real bitches to each other. The understated, almost throw away delivery coupled with a perfect pace, added greatly to the zany situation.

This is one of the funniest plays in months that works particularly well because of the skilled team presenting it.

‘Punk Rock’ premiered at the London’s ‘Royal Exchange Theatre’ in 2009. Although it has crude and inappropriate language throughout, it is still frequently chosen as a final year text for UK schools.

The Murdoch Theatre Company (MTC), in Studio 411 Theatre (off Car Park 4) at Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, is producing this drama, with music.

The one and a half hour performances (no interval) can be seen nightly at 7.30 until Saturday 30^th April.

 The scene is the second floor library of a fee-paying grammar school in working class Stockport, a southern suburb of Manchester. The set shows a large bay window with small leaded panes, and a box seat the length of the window. There are oak student lockers, tables and chairs, but the whole schoolroom has the appearance of decay and lack of funding. The designer of this quality set was Jessica Bennett-Hullin assisted by Ellie Hopwood. The set construction was by Michael Bennett-Hullin, Jessica Bennett-Hullin, William Burgess and Mathew Neale.

The school costumes were all handmade including skirts and trousers. There were specially designed school badges for the blouses and jackets, a huge amount of work, by Ellie Hopwood, Jessica Bennett-Hullin and Anna Weir.

The production manager, Claire Mosel, and her stage manager Grace Pusey have manged to pull this major production together beautifully.

        Seated in the library, studying for his mock exams is teenager, William (Mike Casas), an intelligent pupil who tends to fantasise. When the new girl, Lilly (Paige Mews), who has just moved to the area from Cambridge enters the room, William is only too willing to help her settle in. The next to enter is the heartthrob of the class, Nicholas (Will Moriarty) who is more interested in the older women than students.

       The pleasant conversation is soon broken by the arrival of the class bully, Bennett (Thomas Dimmick), who is crass with the girls as well as degrading with the boys. He creates conflict wherever he goes. Even his girlfriend Cissy (Bella Doyle) only tolerates him because of his perceived power. When Bennett abuses her friend Tanya (Shannen Precious), Cissy is too scared to support her despite Tanya’s obvious inner turmoil.

       Almost unseen, the school genius, Chadwick Meade (Sean Wcislo) enters the library. As soon as he spots Bennett, he begins to tremble and stammer. Bennett loves to see him suffer by pointing out his sexual inadequacies.

       It is not long before there is a tragedy at the school; will they ever be the same again?

I don’t normally quote paragraphs of dialogue from plays, but this drama has what is considered one of the best monologues in modern writing, when near the end, Chadwick Meade says:-

‘Human beings are pathetic. Everything human beings do, finishes up bad in the end. Everything good human beings ever make is built on something monstrous. Nothing lasts. We certainly won’t.

We could have made something really extraordinary and we won’t. We’ve been around one hundred thousand years. We’ll have died out before the next two hundred. You know what we’ve got to look forward to?

You know what will define the next two hundred years?

Religions will become brutalized; crime rates will become hysterical; everybody will become addicted to internet sex; suicide will become fashionable; there’ll be famine; there’ll be floods; there’ll be fires in the major cities of the Western world. Our education systems will become battered. Our health services unsustainable; our police forces unmanageable; our governments corrupt. There’ll be open brutality in the streets; there’ll be nuclear war; massive depletion of resources on every level; insanely increasing third-world population. It’s happening already. It’s happening now.

Thousands die every summer from floods in the Indian monsoon season.

Africans from Senegal wash up on the beaches of the Mediterranean and get looked after by guilty liberal holiday-makers.

Somalians wait in hostels in Malta or prison islands north of Australia.

Hundreds die of heat or fire every year in Paris. Or California. Or Athens.

The oceans will rise. The cities will flood. The power stations will flood. Airports will flood. Species will vanish forever. Including ours.

So if you think I’m worried by you calling me names, Bennet, you little, little boy, you are fucking kidding yourself’.

 On arrival at the theatre, a clue as to the play content is given by the front of house, St Trinians schoolgirls Kiah Van Vlijmen, Claire Mosel and Rhiannon Moon. In the theatre a feature punk duet, Michael Bennett-Hullin and William Burgess, belted out the preshow music. They also filled in briefly between the scenes.

Bella Doyle and Shannen Precious’s clever lighting design changed subtly with the mood of the classroom conversation (carefully operated by Tijana Simic). Combined Corina Brown’s sound design (operated by Jordan Baynes) the atmosphere was electric.

The magnificent director was Tay Broadley, who along with his co-director Justin Crossley and assistant Katie Southwell, have given us a drama to remember. The choice of cast was perfect. Each actor completely understood and captured the depth of their character’s strengths and weaknesses. The team had impeccable chemistry and timing. Tay has cleverly decided on the slow, underplayed delivery for most of the play, only turning up the drama at specific harrowing points. This took the audience’s breath away several times.

When the play finished there was silence before a half-hearted applause began. I just want the actors to know that this did not reflect the audience’s full appreciation, only that they were stunned and drained – such was the power of the acting. When the cast left the stage, again the audience sat numb. It was clear that a few tears had been cast.

This is one of the most powerful and challenging plays that I have seen in years. Everyone concerned should be extremely proud of their success.