Theatre: The Defence

Baste the Bagel
Written and directed by Chris Dunstan
AV designer Alex Perritt
Sound designer Kirby Medway
Performed by Catherine McNamara, Brett Johnson and Douglas Niebling
Until February 21

(★ ★ ★ ★)

The bizarre, sometimes shocking, aspects of Chris Dunstan’s The Defence, shouldn’t obscure that it is an extremely well made, disciplined play with an impressive degree of cultural literacy and some important points about gender, power, and the theatre, to make.
In it, the boy’s club mentality of the rehearsal room is paralleled with wider issues of gender indignities and the pervasive undertow of sexual violence. Dunstan manages to make his play both pornographic and hilarious (though, I must warn you, not everyone in the audience saw the humour, and I can’t criticise them for that).
I got an urgent text from someone telling me not to miss this “surprise Fringe hit” after its opening night. It was good advice – you should take it too.



Link here to the complete review in The West Australian