Dog Farm by Back to Back Theatre, Sept 6, 2000

At La Mama until September 17, 2000

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Dog farm is an exciting, funny and insightful collection of three short plays by Back to Back Theatre which is visiting La Mama from Geelong.

These idiosyncratic plays are generated by the five members of the ensemble with directors, Bruce Gladwin and Marcia Ferguson and writer, Julianne O'Brien.

The themes are universal, the characters represent Everyman and Everywoman. The dialogue is pared down to the essentials, creating spare, simple but often incisive observations of human foibles, love, humour and anger.

Part of the unusual quality of the plays and their style is due to the nature of the company and its members. Back to Back comprises five actors with various intellectual disabilities and a great deal of professional/community theatre experience.

There is a quirky, almost French absurdist, lateral quality to the material and its delivery. Each actor has a distinctive style and their individual obsessions are central to the three pieces. Obsession makes good theatre.

In Sally and Bunce, Sally (Nicki Holland) wants marry and she doesn't care who. Bunce (Darren Riches)  warns her he will drink, hit her and abandon her. "I still want to marry you," snaps Sally. She is hounded by her harridan of a mother. (Rita Halabarec) They marry. It's a disaster. They separate.

Porn Star is not about pornography but about a conservative cleaning woman (guest actor, Noel Jordan)  who cleans the house of an erotic film-maker (Sonia Teuben) and finds her hidden sexuality.

Cow is a vehicle for first-class ham actor, Mark Deans Deans is a consummate clown who takes two simple comic ideas and makes a meal of them. He argues with unruly light bulbs and, like a vaudeville magician, he pulls toy farm animals out of a case then moos and roars into a microphone making the animals leap. It is inexplicable and hilarious.

Music is an integral part of the show. David Franzke's soundscape in Sally and Bunce is exceptional. David Watts and Hugh Covill's compositions are atmospheric.

Clever and simple direction by Gladwin and Ferguson is brisk, stylish and stylised.

The actors look like art works in costumes by Graham Long. They are like eccentric mannequins in a French dada cabaret in the 1920s. Get a look at this show.

By Kate Herbert