Review: night maybe

night maybe
Stuck Pigs Squealing, Theatre Works
17 August 2013
Theatre Works
to 1 September
theatreworks.org.au

There's no maybe about it; night maybe is a must. Stuck Pig's Squealing are consistently a bit awesome and this new work by writer Kit Brookman is as beautiful as it is disturbing and leaves its audience happily lost somewhere between unknown and certain.

On a dark night, Sasha and her brother Tom are in park. She has torches and Nutella sandwiches, but he still abandons her. As she heads into the darkness where others are hiding, each new encounter brings her dangerously closer to safety.

Like in his recent work Heaven, Brookman writes about young adults without forcing the judgment, logic or fear of adults-who-know-better onto them. His night world hides the unknown, embraces the supernatural, but is never clear what, if anything, is real.

Sarah Ogden, Tom Conroy, Marcus McKenzie and Brian Lipson perform like it was written for them. They let each character keep their truths to themselves and never share what they saw in the darkness. This deepens the mystery with every moment and brings us closer to characters who we want to be safe, but still want them to stay in dark until they let us in on the truth.

And all is made more astonishing with the exquisite design by Mel Page (set and costume), Richard Vabre (lighting) and James Brown (sound). From its black and foggy opening, the sight of real grass and trees offers hope of a picnic-perfect conclusion in the sun, but it gets darker and colder as the light creeps into the menacing shadows.

Director Luke Mullins brings all together in a work that's impossible to look away from and difficult to stop thinking about.. By holding back, it never screams its meaning and whatever you walk away with believing is right for you. Just don't miss it.

Photo by Sarah Walker

This was on AussieTheatre.com

Mini review: Heaven

Heaven
La Mama
29 May 2013
La Mama Theatre
to 30 May
lamama.com.au

Heaven won writer/director Kit Brookman the Phillip Parson's Young Playwright's Award in 2012 and this production proves that he's a young writer to keep an eye on.

With an uneasy tone that forces questions of what is real, Heaven is the story of a group of teenage friends who try to bring a classmate back from her recent death. Although maybe a bit over done at times, his writing captures a teen voice and his story has them making choices and behaving like teenagers.

And the cast – Jessica Clarke, Andre Jewson, Lachlan Woods and Sarah Ogden – grasp the tone and mood perfectly; each bringing enough extra to the script to make the characters theirs.

Heaven did so well that extra performances were added. Next time, I'd like to see what a different director finds in the work, but the good news is that we'll see a new Kit Brookman play (with Sarah Ogden) later in the year (I don't think I can say where yet).