Review: BEER THEATRE - AUTOBAHN at Wheatsheaf Hotel

Butterfly Theatre has been presenting its Beer Theatre programme since 2014 and this marks their fifth season. The company is presenting four of the short plays from Neil LaBute's Autobahn: Long Division, Autobahn, Funny, and Bench Seat. Performances take place in 'The Tin Shed' at the ear of The Wheatsheaf Hotel, a venue that hosts a diverse range of entertainment during the year. Written in 2003, the collection consists of seven of these vignettes, the other three being Road Trip, Merge, and All Apologies.

Each play is, effectively, a monologue for one of the two characters, the other reacting non-verbally, and each is set in the front seats of a moving car. Long division finds the driver berating his passenger for not recovering his Nintendo 64 from his ex-girlfriend. Autobahn introduces a mother driving her daughter home from rehab, the girl's conversation making it clear that the time was wasted. Funny has a husband driving, while his wife talks of the son whom they had adopted, and his accusations of abuse. Bench Seat has a couple at a romantic spot where she had once been dumped by a previous boyfriend, her reminiscences of that occasion clearly terrifying the current boyfriend who gives every impression that he, too, was about to drop her.

Each is a tragi-comic play that begins relatively harmlessly, but then develops into deeper territory. All four are directed by Erik Strauts, and feature well-known and respected Adelaide performers. In Long Division, the two actors swap roles on various nights, so try to catch both versions. Bench Seat has been abbreviated a little as the actor playing the boyfriend, James King, unfortunately, had an accident and had to withdraw.

LaBute has long been labelled as both a misanthrope and as a misogynist, and his style has been likened to that of David Mamet, LaBute's own favourite writer. I would also argue that there is the influence of Harold Pinter in his work and I felt that more use of pauses, a very Pinteresque dramatic device, would have added to the performances.

Long Division features Matt Houston as the driver, egging on his passenger, played by David Salter, to turn their surveillance mission into a retrieval attempt. Houston's monologue begins as a somewhat rambling, disjointed series of sentences that slowly becomes coherent as we discover that all the fuss is about a Nintendo 64 that his friend wants to collect from the girl who broke off their relationship and found a new lover, but he lacks the courage. Houston's character does not let up for a moment, criticising and badgering incessantly. Houston does a fine job as the thoroughly irritating driver. It is not courage that makes Salter's character agree to make an effort, but the desperate need to stop the driver from nagging.

Autobahn introduces Rosie Williams as the wayward daughter and Bronwyn Ruciak as the distraught mother. It begins pleasantly enough, with the daughter thanking her mother for sending her where she has been staying and for driving her home. We soon discover that this is sarcasm as she has been in an alcohol rehabilitation clinic. Things turn nasty as she tells of taking drugs whilst there and looking forward to more of the same. Williams meters out the changes in her delivery with care, anger and viciousness mingled as she blames her parents, and Ruciak responds beautifully with facial expressions that show the mother's pain and despair.

Funny has Rachel Burfield engaging in a study in cognitive dissonance, while Brant Eustice is the incredulous husband. Burfield tugs at the heart strings as she insists that they did their best as foster parents, that the boy had gone off the rails and become unmanageable, and that he had concocted lies about the husband sexually abusing him. She is completely in denial of the possibility that there might be some truth in the boy's claims and Burfield makes her character a desperate woman trying to convince herself that all is well. Eustice is a superb foil for her, with a wealth of facial inflections, body language, and meaningful glances.

Bench Seat (remember when most cars had bench seats in the front?) has Laura Antoniazzi as the edgy, clinging, and ultimately terrifying young woman. This is the most comical of the four plays and Antoniazzi matches her characterisation to the script to extract even more laughs from the audience through a continual series of sudden, enormous switches in demeanour. James King braved the stage for the opening night, keeping his broken arm carefully placed well out of harms way, and showed the young man's rising panic wonderfully.

Opening night and Friday night were already sold out before the season began, so don't delay if you want to see these four exquisite miniatures. It only runs until the weekend. Book here or pay at the door, if tickets are available.

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