Thursday 10 October 2002

Still, A Piece of Pie & Gangland, Oct 10, 2002


Still by Jane Bodie, A Piece of Pie by Rik Brown,  Gangland  by Mirra Todd.
At The Store Room  until  October 20, 2002
Reviewer: Kate Herbert

The Store Room in Fitzroy is maintaining its reputation for interesting programming. Its second season of plays for the Fringe Festival is a clever mix.

Still, by Jane Bodie, is a fine series of eight monologues dealing with craving, desire, sex and human foibles.

Four actors ( Shaun Worrell,  Natalie Carr, Mike McLeish  and Julie Eckersley) each perform two characters. The performances are consistently strong.

Eckersley is particularly magnetic as a woman who spies her ex-partner with his new lover in the produce section of the supermarket. Her performance as a woman breaking up with the love of her life is moving.

In Come, Worrell plays the desperation, passion and frustration of first sexual encounters. His other character is an oily, silver-tongued cad in Not Currently.

Carr's woman over-preparing for a date is very funny in Order. In Want Me, she is sympathetic and moving as a woman confessing to an affair.

In Seeing Somebody, McLeish is a harmless voyeur warmly attached to a woman he watches through her window. As the stylish young gay guy at party in Faking It, he is entertaining.

Bodie's writing is well observed, complex and witty. Each monologue captures a moment, a personality a common problem in life and love.

A Piece of Pie  by Rik Brown  is a lighter piece. Although it is about a mad couple who play a game of murderous Trivial Pursuit with a kidnap victim, it is a comedy with some black humour.

The third play of the program Gangland, by Mirra Todd, is a frightening investigation of male violence and misogyny. He writing and themes are tough and relentless. Although the action escalates too quickly, it serves the story well.

Three young professional men meet for a catch up night on the booze. Taylor,  (Simon Roborgh) is a married lawyer trying to get pregnant with his wife.

 Aaron  (Eddy Segal)  is a confused and insecure single male. Their friend Sam  (Sean Barker) is an emotional thug who taunts them both about proving their manhood. The outcome is a violent off stage attack on a woman that changes all of them for life.

The final piece, that I did not see, is Direct From Broadway, an Australian production of a US musical show that won five Tony Awards.

By Kate Herbert

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