This  50-minute, adult show is part of Summer Nights for 2016 FRINGE WORLD, and can be seen each night at 6.00, until 20^th February at the Blue Room Studio in James Street, Northbridge.

The scene is an old fashioned bar, with tasteless tables and chairs. To the side of the bar is a wall, which every time an unpleasant event takes place, another glowing crack creeps from the floor to the ceiling, depicting how the situation is fracturing. The clever lighting and set design is by Liam Kirwan.

        Esther (Bethwyn Legg) has owned and run The Cellar Bar for a decade, but now it is about to close, and Esther is looking forward to opening her new, upmarket club. Seated, in the corner strumming on his guitar – as he has done for years – is Max (David Gregory).

       Into the bar strolls stunning Rhizzy (Dixie Johnstone) the club’s jazz singer. She walks up to the microphone and purrs her moody and deeply emotional songs. Max is furious, as the previous night – half way through her performance – with no warning or explanation, Rhizzy had walked out.

       The bar door flies open, and in stomps Esther’s heart-broken Uncle Zac (Keith Scrivens). He is still grieving the death of his young daughter, who died on this day some years earlier. There is an ‘elephant in the room’ atmosphere, but no one is too sure why.

Director, Peter Clark, has built up a wonderful mix of tension and curiosity, as the skilfully constructed play unfolds. Dixie had a superb voice, and a style matched perfectly to the lyrics. The acting ranged from love and caring, to pure belligerence, and the audience certainly felt for the characters’ suffering. This is a very unusual play, powerfully presented by a top-notch cast.

Another hit for Vivienne Glance.

This bold, confrontational and wild comedy is presented by Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights and Circlestances Productions – under Jay Emmanuel as producer.

Randa is touring the Australian fringes with this delightful show that was ten years in the making.

The stage is black, the only prop being a handbag crammed with unusual items. The lighting and sound operator was Daley King.

       The Sydney bus sways through Redfern, and a young Arab Muslim woman (Randa Sayed) in her late teens / early twenties, notices an Indian lad admiring her. With such a strict upbringing and so many austere religious codes controlling her life, she has never thought about men. That night in bed she started to think about what she was missing, and the consequences of becoming like her heroes, Beyoncé or Kim.

       Unfortunately, her imagination is well ahead of her practical skills, this poor frustrated girl cannot even say ‘Hello’ to a boy, but will she change? Is there even the slightest chance of her getting a man?

 

By combining this piece of interactive acting and theatre sports, Randa has created her own new genre. Although this was a very funny, multi-layered, comedy, there was always that an undertone of sadness, as this girl who was highly religious – at times with tears in her eyes – wanted to be like other girls of her age, but was torn by loyalty and religion.

Over the whole act, Brigitta Brown did a magnificent, flawless voiceover revealing Randa’s thoughts and desires. With Brigitta’s pace and enunciation, I thought that this was a carefully recorded backing track; the live voice, however, added to the freshness of the performance.

Randa had superb mime movements and an amusingly expressive face. The whole act was filled with energy and action as the actor moved around the stage.

A very pleasant surprise from a well-rehearsed, talented team.