This 50-minute Perth Fringe, Dagaz production, is part of the Summer Nights series and can be seen nightly at the Blue Room Studio, James Street, Northbridge at the earlier time of 6.30 pm. Performances run until Saturday 7^th February.

        As soft background music plays (Jack McEwan), the sign on the wall announces that we are in the reception area of ‘Functional Training’, a company that specialises in taking young, naïve and immature people from constantly being trampled upon by others, and showing them how to become empowered in life and romantically please their partners.

       A smart, young woman (Sophie Joske) introduces herself before beginning her lecture. In the side-splitting routine that follows, we are taken through the initial ‘chat up’ routine, before progressing on to what to do during sex. However, for this self-assured speaker, her conscience (voiced by Catherine Bonny) is not far away and every now and then, her style is brought into question.

The young director is Catherine Bonny who already has an admirable portfolio; she has captured Sophie’s subtle, droll, and straight delivery, and guided her performance, blending it with a very professional, lecture-style presentation, complete with amusing diagrams and audio-visual. Sophie, with a broad smile, takes us enthusiastically and faultlessly through this 50-minute show.

The sound and lighting were skilfully operated by Emma Sullivan.

A very funny show, with plenty of novel ideas and lateral thinking going into the punchy script. Great fun.

The 50-minute performance can be seen at Chrissie Parrott Arts space, 4 Sussex Street, Maylands nightly at 7.00 pm until Sunday 23^rd February.

This is a very pleasant tiered seating venue, although it got very hot towards the end.

The walls are white, and there are several white flats which act as projection screens. The stage is the pine floor of this famous dancing school. There are a set of hospital screens, and an intensive care bed with drips and all of the other necessary equipment.

         After sterilising her hands, the uncaring Dr Spack (Jasmine Holmes) enters the ward, and with clipboard in hand starts her survey. She is so typical of many senior management officials today, filled with self-importance and not listening to even the clearest comments being made. She begins her survey with the quiet, blood-covered cleaner (Erin Carter).

        A brief film explains that there is a new plague facing the continent – Barnakism. We are warned how to spot the symptoms of this deadly disease.

        Into the ward shuffles an old lady, Ma (Sophie Joske – excellent) accompanied by her two daughters. One is a caring woman, ‘A’ (Georgia Knox), who works hard to earn the huge fees demanded by this specialist, private hospital for her mother’s care. The other daughter, ‘B’ (Jessica Rawnsley), is a demanding, ungrateful nasty bit of stuff, who treats the staff like dirt.

This is a satirical drama demonstrating how the dollar rules even such essential items as hospital care and health in general.

The theme of the play is a fresh and interesting idea, but sadly the theme has not been developed nearly enough. The dialogue requires more work, and the pace is well off, but despite this you can see the immense talent lurking in the background. Being a writer / director is never a good idea unless you have a great deal of experience behind you. Connor Holmes’ musical soundscape was particularly good.

Some of the Fringe shows are taken to be an excuse to put forward a half-hearted lazy, thrown together show, but this is not the case here. The team has tried hard but needs guidance to develop.