You Once Said Yes
Look Left Look Right
Written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Katie Lyons
Directed by Mimi Poskitt
PIAF until March 2
Tag. You’re It
Renegade Productions
Written and Directed by Alexa Taylor
Fringe World until Feb 15
“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid”, as Raymond Chandler once put it. Writing about Sin City Northbridge, no doubt.
Site-specific theatre, in all its variations, is a feature of both this year’s festivals. We’ve already marvelled at Situation Rooms, and we’ve still got The House Where Winter Lives to come.
So, on a steamy Perth night, I took to those mean streets. Twice. First with the UK company Look Left Look Right’s devious You Once Said Yes, and then with WA outfit Renegade Production’s playful Tag. You’re It.
Each has its own subtext – and even message, if you like. Each involves you moving from encounter to encounter, situation to situation as you walk those streets alone. While it’s not surprising that the experienced, tech-savvy British crew deliver a more surprising, elaborate and entertaining experience than the comparatively basic local production, there is plenty to like about both.
By Alex Broun
Directed by Sussanah Thompson
Featuring Andrew Southern, James Porter, Joel Sammels and Paul Grabovic
PICA until Feb 1
This play about blokes who play football tells an authentic, convincing sporting story without a ball in sight. Well, not a football, at least (full-frontal nudity, adult language and themes warnings apply).
The 27 players from the Port Hedland Pirates are down in Perth for their end-of-season mad weekend. Their mission – to down 10,000 beers.
There is a stupendous bar crawl (it’s not a bad beginner’s guide to the watering holes of Perth and Freo), there is chundering, there are fights, there are the inevitable slobbering home truths. But there are also solidly drawn personalities and nuanced relationships, and a convincing transposition of the qualities and shortcomings the Pirates display on the field to their lives.
It’s fair to say that Broun and Thompson shy away from really exploring the darker side of these colossally male pursuits, but that would make 10,000 Beers a different play.
It would be hard, though, to make it more satisfying, insightful and entertaining than it already is.
Link here to the complete review in The West Australian
Black Swan State Theatre Company
Written by Chris Isaacs
Directed by Adam Mitchell
Set and costume design by India Mehta
Lighting designer Chris Donelly
Sound designer and composer Ben Collins
With Joshua Brennan, Adriane Daff, Samuel Delich, Will O’Mahony, Whitney Richards and Rose Riley
Heath Ledger Theatre
Until February 2
Chris Isaacs’ Flood is the story of six 20-something Perth friends who reunite for a camping trip into the North-West outback organised by Mike (Joshua Brennan).
Steve (Samuel Delich) and the reluctant Vanessa (Whitney Richards) are a couple; Sal (Will O’Mahony), though, has left his girlfriend behind in Melbourne, where he lives, to join his buddies on the adventure. Their mates, Frankie (Adriane Daff) and Elizabeth (Rose Riley), complete the expedition.
They’re city kids, packed into Mike’s mum and dad’s Tarago, and unprepared for the isolation and dangers of the remote place they’re visiting. When a stranger appears out of the bush while the friends are skinny-dipping in a waterhole, surprise turns to fear, confrontation to violence, and disaster to tragedy.
It’s impossible not to recall Raymond Carver’s short story, So Much Water So Close to Home, and especially its Australian film adaptation, Jindabyne, with its added layer of racism. Isaacs’ story is more, and a fair bit less, than those excruciating parables of guilt and its consequences.
Link here to the complete review in The West Australian
