Review: SHORT+SWEET THEATRE Week 7 Offers Nine Stories Of Personal Battles

Friday 16th March 2018, 7:30pm, Tom Mann Theatre

BWW Sydney had the opportunity to attend Week 7 of the world's largest 10 minute play festival, SHORT+SWEET THEATRE. A diverse range of styles and stories come together to vie for a spot in the finals and the accolade of the People's Choice Showcase and Official Judges' winner.

The competition, designed to promote new original works, comprises of a number of 10 minute plays, whittled down to a top 80 presented over 8 weeks. New short plays are presented by a selection of directors with each playwright only allowed to submit one entry, each director only allowed to work on one play per festival and each performer allowed to appear in up to two plays.

Week 7 included works by Deana Alisa Ableser, Anthony J. Langford, Gina Cohen, Harriet Elvin, Alex Dremann, Robert Ballinger, Balarka Banerjee, Connie Schindewolf, and Tommy Green. For a number of the works the writer has chosen to direct their own play and in some cases have also performed in the plays. The plays presented ranged in engagement with the audience with some breaking the fourth wall and others remaining more traditional. They include personal challenges and more absurd plots with varying success.

Ableser's SWITCHING TRACKS, directed by Angeline Andrews sees Brooke Bevilacqua and Georgia Murray battle with fear of the future and the need for a sense of security. Aside from Andrew's choice to have this played to the sound box rather than engaging the audience, this work holds a good message of letting go and trusting in its 10 minutes.

THREE LITTLE WORDS, written and directed by Langford sees Elvis (Tom Harwood) explain his relationship to alcohol with an intriguing justification of his drinking. Harwood connects well with the audience in his monologue and ensures the work has a good pace as he presents a middle class English cocky male.

Cohen features as actress Penelope Lakewood, dealing with a misogynistic 70's talk show host in PRATT, directed by Tara Nandi and co-starring Jeremy Goodwin. This expression of the outdated views on women does dragon with the relentless double entendre and smut as Penelope eventually turns the tables on her host.

Elvin's A LETTER TO HAROLD, directed by SHORT+SWEET senior staffer Larry Kelly and therefore ineligible for votes was an interesting piece on the impact of the soldiers going off to WWI. With three women from Harold's life penning letters to the young soldier sent to Gallipoli, this work has promise as a poignant piece but details in the execution from voices and costuming proved a distraction from trying to believe that Liz Hovey, Ella Hosty-Snelgrove and Allie Joyce were portraying early 20th century Australians.

Kym Vaitiekus directs Dremann's PRECIPICE, an intriguing mystery two hander filled with absurd twists as Angela (Carita Gronroos) and Ron (Simone Neviani) stand on the ledge of an office building. Vaitiekus' staging is delightfully simple as a section of concrete ledge, familiar to anyone who has worked in a 70's or 80's style office, with the location reinforced by Neviani giving the role the requisite physical response to being inches from death as he looks over the shops below. Gronroos however lacks the level of neurosis or stress that would be expected from someone who has gone out on a ledge to escape a meeting on the absurd demands of graphic design.

Alex Furze and Edric Hong are delightful as the adult entertainers negotiating whether to actually bare all in Ballinger's THE ART OF STRIPPING, directed by Michael Block. Furze has a delicious sass and physicality and Hong is suitably nerdy but eager as the two engage in banter that also involves audience participation.

Banerjee also directs and appears in his work BLACK AND WHITE which at first appears to be a straightforward work about Kevin (Luke Reeves) and his two guardian angels, the good voice in white Angela Karanjai, and the bad voice in black Priya Chakraborty. The work however takes an odd turn with the arrival of Dave (Banerjee), a director supposedly running an audition.

Schindewolf's story of memories, THE DANCING LESSONS, holds the potential to engage audiences as Catherine (Melissa Saxton) asks her mother Miriam (Teresa Spencer-Plane) to explain why she has kept certain items as she seems to clear out the old lady's belongings. Unfortunately, Saxton delivers the questions with a level of incredulity as to why the items Catherine considers as junk have been saved by the older woman, currently suffering from Alzheimer's, making it hard to connect and sympathise with the younger woman. Miriam's memories are 'voiced' through scenes from her younger self (Ingrid Lenert) and her beau George (Matt Oxley).

Tommy Green directs and stars in his work FORBIDDEN FRUIT ANGLE as he takes on the role of the biblical Adam opposite Jessica Murphy's Eve. James Hartley plays God and James Shepherd the fallen angel Satan. A comic work of mythical gods and the backstory of the banishment from the garden of Eden, this play is presented with a pantomime style comedy and obviousness as it does away with any attempt for any realism in performance.

https://shortandsweet.org/festivals/shortsweet-theatre-sydney-2018

To post a comment, you must register and login.