BWW Reviews: HEY PRESTO! Is A Rarity Not To Be Missed

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Wednesday 6th January 2016

Sean Watters became interested in finding out about the plays written by his aunt, the late Adelaide writer, Anne-Marie Mykyta. Her former husband, theatre professional, educator and critic, Irenej 'Myk' Mykyta, supplied Watters with a wealth of material, including this play, Hey Presto! For the producer/director, Watters, this must surely have been a real labour of love.

A separated couple, unbeknownst to each other, are enrolled in the same course on clowning. Simon Lancione, Jen Speake, and Julian Jaensch are the workshop facilitator and the antagonistic couple. The piece switches to and fro between realism, when the couple are themselves, and surrealism when they embrace their inner clowns, their alter egos relating in a way that they could not allow their real selves to do.

Lancione plays the egotistical, overly enthusiastic, over the top clowning tutor. His eager instructions to his class form the catalyst for the couple to slip into their red-nosed clown selves and interact in ways that would otherwise be impossible for them.

Speake and Jaensch are the couple at the centre of the play, decidedly unhappy to find that they have been brought together. Through their comic alternative personae, often speaking in gibberish and using facial expressions and body language as they become more comfortable as clowns, they begin to let the audience in on their past, the cause of the distance between them, the difficulty in coming to terms with what happened, and grabbing at other reasons to separate hem, rather than acknowledge the painful truth, and eventually admitting their true feelings.

There are three fine performances and a lot of emotion crammed into this one-act play. Lancione begins by presenting a character whom is somewhat superficial and wrapped in his own self-importance but, as the couple progress and the importance of their interactions becomes progressively more apparent, his character develops, becoming more perceptive and resulting in more incisive instructions to them.

Speake and Jaensch have a very strong rapport and support one another superbly, as each switches between their real and clown characters, with the multiple combinations that this entails. They offer highly moving performances as their dual characters take the journey from anger to mutual understanding and beyond. Make a date to see this production now, while the theatre scene in Adelaide is quiet.

This first season runs until the 12th January, but there will also be a return season during the Adelaide Fringe, from the 27th of February to the 6th of March.

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