For Real grunty theatre
Lynn Freeman24/02/2010 9:57:00 a.m.
Fringe Festival Wrap, by Lynn Freeman
IN the mobile classroom/container that hosts Who’s Neat? You!, we become primary school students.
We are told to believe in ourselves, to practice our tolerance skills, not to crumble to peer pressure, ka pai! But while our politically correct life coaches preach “friendship rules”, they don’t respect each other’s differences and show a lack of tolerance and understanding towards the safety officer who has issues. Great fun, with a bit of an edge to it.
In another part of town, the Fallen from Grace hair salon is the venue for new work, Salon, from the multi-award winning team behind Hotel, which was performed in a hotel room. This is a commissioned play so there is a decent budget for high end publicity and a stellar cast, high expectations too of course.
But where Hotel was gripping, with its crossover narratives, this one story isn’t enough to hold your attention. Two brothers, one emotionally damaged, run a salon. A glamorous woman from their past enters and slowly their story unfolds.
After an enticingly dramatic start as you walk into the salon and take your seat, there is too little drama to engage with, at least until the last 15 minutes. Some of the cast are woefully underused, inexcusable given there is a lot of empty time that could have been spent with them.
Back/Words is documentary/verbatim theatre. The five actors are terrific in all their roles, canvassing children through to grandparents. The structure is built around significant moments in life – childhood, adolescence, first sexual experiences, death.
The problem is, with 13 different characters who sometimes say little more than a line or two, and each actor playing both genders, it is confusing at times. But absolutely worth it.
The hormone-flooded teenage mind is a mystery to adults. So to get an understanding of what’s going on in there, there is no better way than to hear it straight from them.
For Real comes from Christchurch’s Original Scripts Youth Company. It’s brilliant.
The actors each perform a part of a teen’s subconscious. It’s chaos, as the onslaught of adulthood conflicts with childhood innocence. One of the voices, for instance, is Miss Insecurity, who sees herself and believes others see her as fat, dumb and embarrassing. It’s moving and grunty theatre and all the cast give astonishingly assured and unforgettable performances.
IN the mobile classroom/container that hosts Who’s Neat? You!, we become primary school students.
We are told to believe in ourselves, to practice our tolerance skills, not to crumble to peer pressure, ka pai! But while our politically correct life coaches preach “friendship rules”, they don’t respect each other’s differences and show a lack of tolerance and understanding towards the safety officer who has issues. Great fun, with a bit of an edge to it.
In another part of town, the Fallen from Grace hair salon is the venue for new work, Salon, from the multi-award winning team behind Hotel, which was performed in a hotel room. This is a commissioned play so there is a decent budget for high end publicity and a stellar cast, high expectations too of course.
But where Hotel was gripping, with its crossover narratives, this one story isn’t enough to hold your attention. Two brothers, one emotionally damaged, run a salon. A glamorous woman from their past enters and slowly their story unfolds.
After an enticingly dramatic start as you walk into the salon and take your seat, there is too little drama to engage with, at least until the last 15 minutes. Some of the cast are woefully underused, inexcusable given there is a lot of empty time that could have been spent with them.
Back/Words is documentary/verbatim theatre. The five actors are terrific in all their roles, canvassing children through to grandparents. The structure is built around significant moments in life – childhood, adolescence, first sexual experiences, death.
The problem is, with 13 different characters who sometimes say little more than a line or two, and each actor playing both genders, it is confusing at times. But absolutely worth it.
The hormone-flooded teenage mind is a mystery to adults. So to get an understanding of what’s going on in there, there is no better way than to hear it straight from them.
For Real comes from Christchurch’s Original Scripts Youth Company. It’s brilliant.
The actors each perform a part of a teen’s subconscious. It’s chaos, as the onslaught of adulthood conflicts with childhood innocence. One of the voices, for instance, is Miss Insecurity, who sees herself and believes others see her as fat, dumb and embarrassing. It’s moving and grunty theatre and all the cast give astonishingly assured and unforgettable performances.
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