What Melbourne Loved in 2018, part 3

It's time to hear from regulars Ash and Daniel L. And a first time visit from Jane Miller, who's been written about on SM from the very early days.

Ash Flanders
a festival of dangerous ideas dressed in stained pyjamas

Ash Flanders/Norman Bates. Selfie. 

Favourite moments in 2018
Getting to see Abigail's Party on the mainstage – the biggest stage MTC has – was my favourite night at the theatre this year. Stephen Nicolazzo took an older (although to me, it's canon) play now largely associated with community theatre and reminded me why it was still relevant. There's nothing more timeless than people trying to impress each other in order to feel more than what they are (but enough about the arts scene, LOLZ). Getting to hear lines I know off by heart was one kind of thrill, but hearing something new in them – as well as crafting detailed relationships between these seemingly broad characters – left me gobsmacked. That lady is anything but Nicolazy.

Other non-lazy ladies who blew my mind were POST with Ich Nibber Dibber. I don't envy the task of studying and transcribing your younger self, but the result was captivating. On a structural level the piece was a damn impressive feat of storytelling, but while it made me laugh (probably the most of any show this year), it also made me feel a lot of feeeeelings, none of which I'll share because I don't know you. I think like a lot of work I really dig it took something seemingly disposable – the offcuts of unstructured chats over ten years – and made something incredibly HIGH ART BUT ALSO CLOWNY from it.

I also got to witness an unforgettable moment at the end of the Malthouse season of Blackie Blackie Brown. Seconds before the show concluded, an audience member took a turn and was sick in the seating bank forcing the whole show to stop, because those are the sort of happy accidents that tended to happen with this show. I also cut my hand open with a machete in Sydney. We were determined to say goodbye to this beast properly, so Dalara Williams delivered her final monologue from the foyer. But the timing worked out so that midway through her monologue audiences began coming out of Melancholia... because. of course. Dalara's voice managed to silence the entire Malthouse foyer, and both audiences stood silently to witness it. The words Nakkiah had written – about a brighter Aboriginal future and the struggles still ahead – never felt more powerful than in that moment. I had the distinct feeling of being in a 'star-making' moment and I'm sure everyone else felt the same about me seeing as I'd set Dalara up for her monologue by playing a seven-year-old boy – a role I'd been gunning for since day one of rehearsal.

Looking forward to in 2019
Naturally I'm looking forward to working with a bunch of talented folks in The Temple at Malthouse (join usssssss....). I'm also a little thrilled we have Ellen Burstyn to gawk at when she acts her pants off in 33 Variations – which I assume is about the many TIGHT POLITE SMILES she has for homosexuals bothering her incessantly about The Exorcist. I'm also crossing my fingers for more plays from the GONE WRONG universe.

SM: Sure Blackie Blackie Brown was just the best, but then came PELICANette: the link should take you to the Google doc.


Daniel Lammin
Director

Engaged means presents!

Favourite moments in 2018
For me, it has to be The Bachelor S17 E5. I think I may have gotten the last ticket because I kept putting it off. The idea of staging an episode of a reality TV show sounded trite to me, and I had no desire to watch a bunch of self-satisfied artists put an episode on stage just for us to laugh knowingly at it and feel superior to it. But when I realised it was the work of Morgan Rose and Katrina Cornwell, I leapt at my computer and frantically booked. Morgan and Kat are maybe my favourite theatre makers in Melbourne. Their work is always so stirring and thrilling and presented with such generosity (especially their Riot Stage work), but The Bachelor surpassed my suddenly high expectations. It was beyond a clever concept, beyond parody. It was profound, hilarious, disturbing, moving, infuriating and epic. It treated its subject with such respect as it pulled its gender and racial politics apart, and in the process the gender and racial politics of our own world. This was theatre immediate and vital, insanely imaginative and rigorous in a way so little work is anymore. Morgan, Kat and their team presented a series of questions, provocations and conundrums, but you didn’t hear the questions, you felt them deeply, and Kat’s direction is some of the best I’ve seen in Melbourne in a long time. I left afterwards giddy at its audacity and generosity. Anyone else would have made it a joke, but they made it something bigger, deeper and grander than anyone on that show would ever have imagined their pursuit of Love could be.

Looking forward to in 2019
Obviously anything that Kat and Morgan do, which is also linked to the work of another artist I love. We finally get to see a staging of Fleur Kilpatrick’s Whale thanks to MAPA with Kat directing, and it just sounds so incredibly audacious! I’m also very excited for Fleur’s production of Slaughterhouse Five coming back, a co-pro with Monash Uni Student Theatre (MUST) and Theatre Works. The original production was incredible, and the work Fleur created with the students was often extraordinary. I can’t wait to see it again!

SM: I love Daniel's ongoing exploration of men and violence and where we go so wrong to create societies where violence develops: Sneakyville at fortyfivedownstairs (written by Christopher Bryant) started with Charles Manson, but was so much more.

But my favourite show of his this year was After Hero by the Monash Centre for Theatre and Performance at Malthouse. He works with emerging actors (students makes it sound like they aren't ready; they are) to create performances that come from places that mean something to the performers. This creates a passion on the stage that is so easy to connect to.

And it's very exciting that he's going to be continuing to work with students in his new position as producer at Monash Centre for Theatre and Performance.

I also use a film review he wrote when I teach film criticism. It's an example of personal subjective writing and it ALWAYS gets students talking and thinking about how to be more personal in their own writing.

Jane Miller
Playwright
15 Minutes from Anywhere

Jane Miller

Favourite moments in 2018
I didn’t see as much theatre in 2018 as I would like to have. Highlights for me were Blasted at Malthouse. It’s obviously not an easy text but Sarah Kane’s writing is stunning, confronting and visceral. Everything about Anne-Louise Sarks’s production was pitched perfectly. Blasted forced me to appreciate the privilege inherent in my own discomfort.

Something completely different was Puffs at The Alexander Theatre. I’ve only read three Harry Potter novels  – SM: What!? – so I probably didn’t get as much from the humour as true aficionados, but it was fun, clever and the performances were excellent.

The evocative and intelligent Fallen by She Said Theatre at fortyfivedownstairs made me acutely aware of the powder keg of frustration underneath an incredibly repressed façade. I love She Said Theatre’s work.

Perhaps my favourite show of the year was Morgan Rose and Katrina Cornwell’s The Bachelor S17 E5. By using the transcript of an episode of The Bachelor, they made a show that was both hilarious and disturbing. Their production choices and beautiful cast revealed the darker subtext at the underbelly of reality television. It was brilliant and I’d love to see it have another run.

Looking forward to in 2019
Solaris at he Malthouse and Arbus and West at the MTC. I will be keeping my eyes open for the exciting things coming up a Red Stitch, Darebin, fortyfivedownstairs, Theatre Works and from my favourite independent artists.

My creative partner-in-crime Beng Oh has a return of his excellent production of Mike Bartlett’s play Cock coming to fortyfivedownstairs for Midsumma, which is very exciting.

Perhaps the thing I’m most looking forward to is seeing the amazing team at La Mama continue to thrive and renew despite the heartbreak they experienced during 2018. Their determination and support of artists is a wonderful thing to experience any year.

SM: Jane has been one of my favourite local writers since she stood out in Short and Sweets many years ago. Her plays grasp how characters have to make choices and that those choices should be impossible. Her characters are us; we know these people and she always ensures that we remember them because we're making those impossible choices with them. Her Just A Boy Standing in Front of a Girl  at La Mama in October surprised me at every turn. It began by ensuring that the audience had to think about gender and perspective from the moment we sat in our gender-specific seats, and continued to question what decisions in the story were based on gender. Great stuff.

Review: Cuckoo

Cuckoo
15 Minutes From Anywhere
9 July 2014
fortyfivedownstairs
to 26 July
fortyfivedownstairs.com

Photo by Lachlan Woods

Jane Miller completed Cuckoo as part of the Masters of Writing for Performance at VCA. Produced with the support of fortyfivedownstairs, it's beautiful writing that lets hope shine in its blackness and continues to establish Miller as one of Melbourne's most exciting independent writers.

Mel (Natalie Carr) and Leo (Matthew Molony) are a middle-aged couple talking about their freedom as they sit at home, as they do every night; him playing with Lego and her with her laptop. When a teenager (Samuel Russo) knocks on their door claiming to have been hit by a car, he wants to eat toast and brings in memories and possibilities that Mel, Leo and their ex-cop friend Dan (David Kambouris) welcome and dread.

Miller's writing always captures the souls of her very broken characters by letting the truth of comedy reveal the disfunction that they can't see in themselves. With a structure that builds the tension like a Jenga tower, Cuckoo creates an ever-deepening mystery as everyone holds their secrets tight and hopes that their truth isn't found in the silence of the subtext.

Alice Bishop's direction keeps the rhythm beating and the tension high, the cast make the balance of laughter and the unthinkable feel as natural as they are, and Bronwyn Pringle's lighting leaves shadows that remind how the bigger picture is always bigger, darker and less defined.

Hidden underground near some of the city's best and swankiest restaurants in Little Collins Street, fortyfivedownstairs supports Melbourne independent art and artists and continues to win the support of Melbourne theatre-goers. Hopefully, it will continue to present works like Cuckoo because it's up there with some of the best script-based theatre around and without places like fortyfivedownstairs, it might never have been seen.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Mini review: True Love Travels on a Gravel Road

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road
23 May 2013
fortyfive downstairs
to 2 June
truelovetravels.net

Jane Miller is one of my favourite Melbourne writers. Her work lets us see the hearts of her broken characters and she knows that the only way to survive the unexpected horrors of love is to embrace the darkness and laugh.

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road is set in a country town where two couples are trying to figure out what to do next. For Maggie and Jake, it's a trip to Graceland and things like Maggie's husband or Jakes lack of money needn't stand in the way of their dream.

With spot on performances (Chris Broadstock, Marnie Gibson, Emily Goddard, David Kambouris, Elizabeth McColl and Glenn van Oosterom) and tone-perfect direction by Beng Oh, there's not much more to say, except that it finishes on Sunday.

On Writing: Jane Miller

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road
fortyfive downstairs
fortyfivedownstairs.com

In the first of a series with writers, Jane Miller talks about True Love Travels on a Gravel Road (which I'm seeing alter this week).

What made you want to write this play?
I was asked to write a piece for the National Theatre Drama School and started working on a few scenes. Unfortunately work commitments meant I couldn’t pursue the opportunity but I had written a scene between two guys on a street undertaking a business transaction with a dog barking continually and interrupting them. The rest of the play evolved from my curiosity about that transaction.

How long did it take you to write it/how many drafts?
I wrote the first scene in 2009 and finished the first draft in January 2011. I kept leaving it and coming back to it in between other projects but once I finished the complete first draft, I worked on it consistently through the readings and The R E Ross Trust Development process. We are rehearsing version 16.

Is there a character you relate strongly to?
All of them. They all have something in them that I love even when they do things I don’t understand. My characters are never directly based on myself or people I know, but they all have different little pieces of me in them.

Can you remember where you were when Elvis died?
Sadly yes, which puts me in a demographic minority in this production! I was very young and watching the Early Bird Show before school when they announced it on the news.

What’s your favourite Elvis song?
“Kentucky Rain” and “True Love Travels on a Gravel Road”, of course.

Where’s your Graceland?
New York. It is just the best place to go for a holiday and I always bring home stacks of plays from The Drama Bookshop.

What’s it like working closely with director, Beng Oh?
An absolute pleasure.  It is a collaboration that we didn’t plan but, for me in particular, has been incredibly significant. I appreciate his honesty, his eye for detail and his ability to see the possibilities for a text even as a first draft. Beng has great judgement, which I trust completely, and I have learned a huge amount about how plays work on stage working with him. He is very open to having me attend rehearsals, which is a wonderful for me as a writer because I don’t think I fully understand my work until I see it in the hands of actors and a director.  As a theatre goer, I am always excited to see what he does next and can’t wait for his production at La Mama in August of George Tabori’s Mein Kempf.

Who wins if you disagree?
The art wins.

Can you remember when you knew you wanted to be a writer?
High School. We had a fully equipped theatre and I knew I loved drama, but also knew I wasn’t an actor.

What other writing do you do? 
Not much really apart from my day job.

What playwright do you read when you need inspiration?
Sam Shepherd, Tracy Letts, Paula Vogel, Edward Albee, Sarah Kane and lots of others. I read a lot of plays. I also love hearing playwrights talk about their process.

Apart from plays, what else do you love reading?
Scandinavian murder mysteries. I absolutely love them and when Henning Mankell autographed one of his books for me at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival a few years ago I was wildly excited.

Any hints to over come writer’s block?
Read plays and see theatre. Whenever I go to the theatre, I feel absolutely inspired all over again by possibilities. Even if it is not a great play, there is something exciting about watching actors and a creative team that just makes me want to write.

What was the title of your first play?
It was actually a play I wrote in year 10 drama called Where There’s a Will… . It was a country house murder mystery. A couple of years later I co-wrote our Year 12 production, a western called Black Cactus and that is the one that confirmed my desire to write.

Do you ever hand write or is everything on screen?
Everything on computer….and Dropbox.

Do you keep a writer’s diary?
Not a diary, but I have a folder called BitsnPieces on my computer where I keep odds and ends.

How does it feel when you’re sitting in a theatre audience watching your play?
Terrifying and amazing. I see the play completely differently with an audience. I tend to go a lot during a run because I love what that experience teaches me about writing for both performance and an audience.

Do you have a writing routine?
Not enough of one. I try to write something every day, but I work full time so it is not always easy to be disciplined when I get home.

Are you an early-morning or a late-night writer?
Late night.

Who do you go to for feedback about your writing?
Beng is great about providing feedback and advice. I sent him True Love Travels as soon as the first draft was finished. I sometimes get my family and friends to read a draft but I really need to see actors read a piece to see what state it is in. The opportunities I had, starting off, with Short + Sweet, Melbourne Writers' Theatre and Crash Test Drama were brilliant for me and great places to meet actors, directors and other writers.

What’s one of your favourite quotes about writing?
I think it is attributed to Ernest Hemingway, “Write drunk, edit sober”. I like it not because I literally think it’s necessary to write in a constant state of inebriation but it captures the openness and freedom you need to give yourself when writing a first draft and the subsequent hard headed work of redrafting and editing.

Do you think actors and directors should be able to change something you’ve written? (Is the playwright always right?)
I am a big believer in the text serving the performance. It’s not a novel, so if it doesn’t work for the performance you can’t preserve it in stone. I have been very fortunate to sit in on rehearsals so I can make changes and rework things that are not working. My experience is that I am usually the one who wants to cut a line or change it and actors and directors will do their best to work with what you have provided. I appreciate a director flagging changes with me and I have usually been incredibly lucky with the directors I have worked with.

What advice can you give to emerging playwrights?
Write, read and see as many as plays as you can. Take your stuff to things like Cold Readings Series and Crash Test Drama and see actors read it.

What do you suggest emerging playwrights read?
Plays.

Why do you write for the stage, instead of film, tv or novels?
I love actors. I also really enjoy seeing work engage with an audience. It is so immediate, which can be wonderful and scary.

Do you read your reviews?
I do, which is probably not the answer a writer is supposed to give.

What’s your advice on taking criticism?
It’s tough, but if it is constructive and well reasoned, you appreciate it and learn a lot from it. Sometimes the stuff that touches a nerve does so because it resonates with something you knew or suspected about the work. However, the other side of it is that art is subjective and in the eye of the beholder and you have to stay true to yourself and what you envisaged for the piece when you wrote it. Good criticism can really aid development but sometimes that can be with a bit of hindsight.

As a creator, you have to hand your characters over to actors so that they can live. When has an actor made one of your characters into something more than you imagined?
Every time they go on stage. The characters you give to actors are the starting point. The collaborative nature of theatre means that they always become more than you imagined. I learn new things about the six characters in True Love Travels every time I see a rehearsal.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Opening this week: True Love Travels on a Gravel Road

Jane Miller is of my favourite Melbourne playwrights. She's really only just started writing, but since first noticing her at Short and Sweet in 2007, she's written a pile of terrific short plays and her first full length play, Happily Ever After, was one of my favourite productions in 2010.

The premiere production of her second full-length play opens at fortyfivedownstairs on Thursday (previews on Wednesday). True Love Travels on a Gravel Road, which is also the name of an Elvis Presley song, was a recipient of the R E Ross Trust Playwrights' Script Development Award in 2011.

Described as a comedy about living the dream, it's about Jake, who has been patronised and pegged as the town “tard” all of his life, but when he falls in love with Maggie anything seems possible and making Maggie’s dream of escaping to Graceland becomes his quest.

After the success of Happily Ever After, Jane's again joined with Director Beng Oh and she says,"Beng challenges me in the best possible way – he is incredibly generous and open – and I trust his judgement as a director and dramaturge."

Beng says that Jane "has a brilliant ear for dialogue – the laughter in this work arises from the choices, situations and language of the characters. She doesn’t dwell on their misery but you glimpse it and it grounds the comedy.”

The cast of True Love Travels on a Gravel Road are Chris Broadstock, Marnie Gibson, Emily Goddard, David Kambouris, Elizabeth McColl and Glenn van Oosterom

Booking details. And remember that most shows at fortyfivedownstairs sell out, so best to book now.

What's On: Mad Women Monologues

Baggage Productions are presenting Mad Women Monologues, 23 short plays over three themed nights.

All the works are written by women, including Jane Miller , Kathryn Goldie, Christine Croyden, Christina Costigan, Bridgette Burton, Cerise de Gelder and Hannie Rayson.

Crime Night has finished, but there's still Crossroad on 20 November and Barflies on 22 November.

All the booking info is at www.madwomen.org.au.

RE Ross Playwright's Awards

I often hear playwrights complain that they are not supported and that, despite their obvious talent, they can't break into the "scene". What?!

Melbourne finds so many ways to support and encourage writers. From La Mama to MKA, there are independent companies all over town who are screaming for good new writing and there are awards and prizes from our more formal and government funded institutions.

Tonight, the winners of the R E Ross Trust Playwrights Script Development Awards are celebrating at the State Library.

SM is especially thrilled to see that Jane Miller and Jane Montgomery Griffiths are among the four winners.

Review:Happily Ever After

Happily Ever After
La Mama
7 July 2010
La Mama Theatre
to 11 July
www.lamama.com.au

Jane Miller's beautiful and complex writing stood out at the Short and Sweet and Melborn short play festivals.  Happily Ever After is her first full-length work and is firmly placing her as one of Melbourne's must-see playwrights.

Lizzie and Ben are trying for a baby, Ben needs to convince Chloe to leave her house before his boss Dave gets the police,  Dave is trying to make Ben take charge of his life, and Chloe just wants to be left alone.

These characters have lost so much or have so much more to lose than they know and as their secrets are revealed or kept, each face a life of compromise while wishing that – just once – they were enough for their loved one.

In letting her breaking souls try for a miracle happy ending, Miller brings recognisable and complex emotions to the stage and shows them through a highly original story. In a mix of fractured fairy tale (the Prince dies alone because he won't take Cinderella at her word) and harsh reality, she balances the despair with hope and the bitter heartbreak with bitter-sweet comedy.

Director Beng Oh, who also stood out at Short and Sweet, deftly captures the frustration of relationships and the tone of the writing with composed pacing and by letting the cast embrace their character archetypes without losing their uniqueness.

Mike Frenchman (Dave) and H Clare Callow (Chloe) are the emotional counter balances to Paul David-Goddard (Ben) and Marnie Gibson (Lizzie). Frenchman's prick who thinks he's a mentor lets us laugh and Callow's distraught Chloe lets us wallow, as Ben and Lizzie try to find a way to be as happy as they pretend to be.  Lizzie could be easy to hate, but Gibson brings understanding to her actions and never lets us feel sorry for her and David-Goddard brings a complexity to Ben that lets us see the internal fight between letting himself feel and "manning up" to the world.  The last time I saw David-Goddard perform, he reduced me to tears (in An Air Balloon Across Antarctica); this is an actor who deserves a lot more attention.

Fortunately, Melbourne theatre goers are recognising the wonderfulness of Happily Ever After and a new show has been added on Sunday at 3pm because the remaining nights are selling out. This is theatre that wakes your heart up, so call La Mama and grab a ticket now.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Short and Sweet 09 Top 30 Week 3

Short and Sweet 09 Top 30 Week 3
Short and Sweet
5 December 2009
Chapel off Chapel

Three cheers for Week Three! The final top 11 for Short and Sweet 2009 proved that, even with a few duds, this festival needs to stay around, as original stories and a sense of fun came back to the stage.

Pat Sheil’s A Safe Pair of Hands is a funny and original look at an Anzac legend, and what a treat to have John Derum on the stage.

A Matter of Taste was as light and complex as a beet foam infused with basil, and as intriguing as the Masterchef  final. I love that writer Kathryn Goldie knows that audiences are clever creatures and left the ending open.

The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe was the Queen Mum, when she was just Queen. I liked the idea that she was really Eric’s mum, but there were some holes in the plot that left too much unanswered.

You May Kiss The Bride is a lazy title for a delightful work. Emma Moore immediately makes the audience part of her story and doesn’t let them go. It may work better to keep where they are a secret for a bit longer and let the audience figure it out before the characters do.

Jane Miller continues to writes great short plays that reveal complex characters, and it was wonderful to see her working with comedy in The Tea Break. Anyone who has ever worked in an office has wanted to do exactly the same thing.

Suburbia was bogans fucking. It made fun of stereotypes and anal sex and no one seemed to use condoms.

Difficult Circumstances With Time Bomb (and ‘yuppies’). When there’s a bomb in the room and the title, you have to make us really care about the folk in peril. It was very funny though, even if it ended a few seconds too late.

Paul Tolton’s This is Heaven made up for it’s lack of real story by being gorgeous and sweet and showing a wonderful relationship that we cared about.

Carl Sorheim’s It’s All The Rage made me uncomfortable. I didn’t enjoy the experience – which is so much better than just not caring.

Short Sharp Shock is a terrific joke that was eight minutes too long with an ending that must be binned before its next outing.

Wonderful puppets, the best costumes of the festival and some beaut jokes, but Limpets came unstuck with story.


PS - Last week I suggested that a Best of Short and Sweet program would be great and, if I’d read the program fully, I would have known that there is one already planned.

This review appeard on AussieTheatre.com.

Week 1
Week 2

MelBorn08: Playspotting

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2008
Melborn 08: Playspotting
Melbourne Writers' Theatre
27 September 2008
Carlton Courthouse

The Melbourne Writers’ Theatre is a wonderful organisation dedicated to developing, promoting and showcasing Australian script writing. Following the success of the 2007 MelBorn short play festival, I was looking forward to MelBorn08: Playspotting.

Playspotting is 12 short plays, selected from 138 entries, featuring 11 directors and 15 actors. With such a large group of creatives, the quality and standard are always going to vary, and this years’ crop ranged from outstanding to woeful.

Jane Miller’s A Cup of Sugar was my highlight of the evening. Every time I see something she writes, I’m engaged and moved. Miller reveals extraordinary stories in ordinary lives, creates authentic, empathetic characters, and forces them to make unthinkable decisions and choices.  In this work, her characters have no choice but to tell heartbreaking lies that we can see staying with them for ever.

What made this work stand above the rest is that I cared about her characters and their stories. In so many other Playspotting plays, the characters were simply a means for the author to tell us a joke, preach an opinion or show off their knowledge. This resulted in too many clichéd, one-dimensional or simply forgettable characters – including an over-representation of poor, downtrodden, misunderstood artist protagonists.

There were some amazing, original and insightful ideas in all the scripts. The writing talent is obvious, but some were trying so hard to be original that that forgot to tell a story or just weren’t ready to be performed. Many felt like early drafts, and I have to wonder if the MWT work shopping and feedback processes are vigorous (or honest) enough.

At three hours, MelBorn08: Playspotting is a long haul, twelve stories are a lot to think about and – despite appreciating the work of every artist involved – I was disappointed in the result.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Short and Sweet 07 Week 1 Top 10

Short and Sweet 2007 Week 1 Top 10
5 December 2007
The Arts Centre, Fairfax Theatre

‘Tis the season to watch many short plays. Short and Sweet 07 had 1141 script entries this year. 60 were chosen and the absolute best of this group will win a share of the $30 000 prize pool. Short and Sweet is addictive. One you’ve seen one night, you just can’t stop yourself coming back for more.

There are three weeks to the competition. Each week sees 10 of the Top 30 and 10 Wildcard performances. Scripts were entered from all over Australia and playwrights from 12 other countries also wanted to be involved in this fabulous program. The selected scripts are presented by some of Melbourne’s best independent directors and performers.

Week One’s Top 30 group willingly experimented with form and structure. Some succeeded in breaking new ground, while others could benefit from less focus on the brilliance of the writing and more on the telling of the story. Even in such a short format, a story needs a beginning, a middle and an end.

Sleeping Leeches
Liza Dezfouli explores love and dating when your nearly 40. Is it any different or do we start making choices that we would have rejected in our earlier years? There is some very beautiful, funny and emotionally honest writing in this work, but it needs something more to happen in the telling. A bit more action or a twist in the plot would help these excellent characters to tell a great story.

Spots
It’s an old story that can, and should, be told and retold. Why don’t we act when our friends are attacked and disappear? Sarah Giles directs Steven Hopley’s script with a highly effective theatricality. The characters are dressed in blueprints and pattens, but can’t see the obvious pattern appearing before them. The heightened performances support the comedy and keep us interested, even though we know what will happen.

Thrilling Hostage Melodrama at High Speeds With Pineapple
The title says it all. Reservoir Dogs with chicks. Adam Hadley’s script is a great contrast of characters and energy that is supported by good direction and good performances. It’s well paced, very funny and throws in a good mix of surprises.

The Gap
OK, I have to admit that I may really have been the most stupid person in the audience that night. I didn’t immediately realise that the people stuck in a glass round room, dressed in orange and called Nemo and Fishie were fish. I look so hard for the subtle, that I miss the bloody obvious! However, I thought it was a great piece of writing no matter what. Phoebe Harley directed her own script. At times it focused too much on the writing, but the repetition and the structure create good tension, good pace and lead to a suspenseful and perfect ending.

Hope Fades But The Duck Never Dies
Jane Miller’s script is emotionally real and engaging. She presents two very different perspectives of the same relationship and questions why we want to keep a relationship that we know is already destroyed. Her metaphors are sometimes a bit forced, but original and totally in accord with her style. This work may struggle against the funnier pieces and needs some more focussed direction, but I think it was the best written piece of the night.

Bury Your Goldfish
I knew that this one really had fish in it. Michelle Wallace has written a very original and engaging piece that compares a mother’s perspective of her teenage daughter to the perspective of the same daughter though the eyes of her goldfish. Using puppets and a delightful cardboard set, this work uses the visual as a vital part of the story telling. It should have worked better than it did. Form was distracting from story and the decision to have the mother reading from a lectern never made sense.

a ramble through the wooded glen
Neighbours meets Deliverance. Thomas Henning already knows that his piece will be remembered for a very, very long time by anyone who sees it. I’m still not 100% sure what it was about, but it was dark and absurd and combined violence with slapstick and was prepared to go places that many would dare not venture.

Michael Goes Home
Bridgette Burton has written a very clever and well structured piece. It tells its story well and reveals information gently and powerfully. It was directed in a way that focussed a bit too much on the form and structure, which lessened the impact of the characters and their story. A better balance is needed between the four characters to lift its emotional impact.

Love Story 2007
I’m afraid that too many people sniggered simply because a young man fancied an older woman. Why is this still the case? I’m pretty sure the giggles would never have surfaced if the gender of the characters was reversed. Anna Lall’s premise and plot are very good. Her dialogue needs some work and the characters need some fleshing out. As an audience we needed to see a genuine and sexual connection between these two to make us really want them to be together.

Carnal Pseudo-Skewered Pig
Jane E Thomson is one of the few writers who really let her characters change and created the action for changes and surprises. Director Yvonne Virsik keeps the action lively, funny and paces it perfectly to an excellent ending

This review appeared on AussieThearte.com.