Theatre: In a Bony Embrace (★★★½)

By Gita Bezard
Curtin University Stage One Production
directed by Adam Mitchell
designed by Sally Phipps
performed by Daisy Coyle, Alexander Gerrans, Chelsea Gibson, Sean Guastavino, Anna Lindstedt, Tristan McInnes, Jessica Nyanda Moyle, Kane Parker, Beth Tremlett and Nathan Whitbrook
Blue Room Theatre
December 8 - 12, 2015

The theatre course at Curtin University, in various forms and under various titles, has been producing good work and many very good theatre-makers for decades. Its light may have been obscured by the enormous bushel that WAAPA has become, but that hasn’t stopped the fourth of its Stage One productions, Gita Bezard’s In a Bony Embrace, lighting up the Blue Room in a short season this week.
Bezard, who is one-seventh of indie darlings The Last Great Hunt, and the notable director, Adam Mitchell, have steered this natty ensemble piece and the student actors in its cast to a funny and surprisingly touching destination.
In a Bony Embrace is a work in progress, as are these young actors, and there is, naturally, something of an exercise for students about both its writing and staging.
But that doesn’t detract from what is a genuinely rewarding and entertaining piece of theatre in its own right. 

Read the complete review in The West Australian