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Waterdale Originals Plays 07
Presented by: SPX Waterdale Players Inc.
Venue: Banyule Theatre, Heidelberg
Reviewer: Susanna Nelson
Date Reviewed: 6th October, 2007
Waterdale Originals was a strikingly simple idea which started with
two young actor writers, Shane Sanfilippo and Luis Riviera,
assembling a group of their peers to write and perform in a series
of eight short original plays. With backing from the Foundation for
Young Australians and BOObook Theatre, the result is an engaging mix
of themes and concerns – the plays range from the playfully abstract
to the highly personal.
There is an impressive depth and maturity to the script writing and
an honesty often lacking in plays written by more experienced
professionals. Most of the writers also have roles in their pieces
and are responsible for the show’s production, so the project is a
true ensemble effort and a valuable showcase of the talents of the
group.
The evening plays out as a series of conversations – between teacher
and pupil, bartender and barfly, psychic and client. Some of the
pieces explore classic teenage dilemnas – for example, the student
on the bus in love with the unattainable girl at the back – while
others make forays into surrealism and the satire of talk shows and
office politics. The sets are simple and the focus is clearly on the
dialogue rather than the spectacle of the performance. As with most
community theatre, there was probably also a shoestring budget to
consider.
First up is Bus, set on the morning bus trip to school, where
a young lovelorn man pines after a vacuous, unpleasant girl who
ignores his many advances. His best friend, a girl, warns him
against this folly, but in the true spirit of the young romantic he
refuses to listen. It’s a simple scenario, but it is realised with
humour and energy by its cast and writer Shane Sanfilippo, who
clearly has an ear for the cadences of youthful longing.
Guidance,
by Martin Dunlop, cleverly tackles a young man’s attempt to confront
his sexuality at school. The conversation which evolves between the
student and his alcoholic teacher (played for laughs by the writer
himself) takes in dark humour and, in the words of one of the
characters, ‘self indulgent monologues’, and ends with a lobotomy
for the young man, which his teacher assures him will cure him of
his homosexuality, and, as a side benefit, allow him to ‘enjoy
commercial radio’ and ‘watching cricket for hours’. It’s cleverly
observed and much more subtle than it sounds. I wouldn’t be
surprised if there’s a niche for Dunlop in comedy writing.
Session One
conveys the high drama and unintentional humour of television
psychics and talk shows. Writers Romina Carfi and Bianca Molini spar
as a Paris Hiltonesque blonde and her hapless beau. Both women do a
fine job of creating unease and combine a sense of the sinister with
the humour of the familiar.
Next up are the two male co-workers who have fallen asleep on the
job in Concept A. We watch as they scramble for a concept to
present at an upcoming meeting. Writer Mark Petrolo seems to have a
firm grip on the spin and hypocrisy of the business world, and the
play is mature and very funny.
Georgia Antonello plays a barfly in her piece Barry’s, about
a bar owner who spends his whole life in his self-named bar, boring
and charming the regulars in equal measure. The titular character
certainly seems to draw his identity from his life as a bartender –
but is his name really Barry?
Spilt Coffee,
penned by Shane Sanfilippo and Angie Bedford, depicts two friends
reliving the highs and lows of their friendship as they prepare for
a radio competition trip to Bali. The piece is a light moment before
the dark finale, Family, which explores grief and domestic
violence with powerful performances from three leads, Lonni Allan,
Romina Carfi and Greta Georgiou, dressed in stark black outfits on a
minimalist set. The play commences with the characters chanting
their lines as if in Greek chorus, and as the layers of the story
are peeled back, we understand the context of their words. It’s
clever, non-linear writing, and a complete absence of props allows
us to concentrate on raw, believable performances – with a
particularly impressive depiction of barely restrained contempt from
Carfi.
All the plays are solid, but it is perhaps those which work outside
the bounds of conventional storytelling which are the most powerful
and effective, and these seem to work with minimal (or no) reliance
on music, props, costumes or complicated lighting.
The cast does an admirable job of realising their own visions, and
the performances are consistent and solid. Ultimately though, the
night is about young playwriting talent, and I enjoyed being taken
on a journey into the psyche of these young writers immensely.
Susanna is a
trades journalist by day and a culture vulture and reviewer of just
about anything by night. Since her days as a cinema student she has
had two passions - writing and singing. Writing pays the bills, but
if she were ever offered the opportunity to tread the boards in a
Broadway musical, she’d turf out her Mac in an instant.
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