Sisters & Night by Raimondo Cortese, REVIEW of VIDEO- 8 April 2022 ***1/2

THEATRE – Archival video

 Sisters & Night - two short plays by Raimondo Cortese

By Metanoia Theatre Production

At The Bergy Seltzer, Brunswick until Sun 27 March 2022. 

This review of video of performance on 16 March 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert (of video performance)

Stars: ***1/2

This review published only on this blog. KH

Miles Paris, Yogashree Thiru in Sisters (pic from video)

Sisters, written by Raimondo Cortese, is an intimate snapshot of siblings, Michelle (Miles Paris), and her sister, Tess (Yogashree Thiru), as they lounge around in Tess’s home, bickering and laughing as they evidently waiting for someone to arrive.

 

Cortese’s writing, combined with Greg Ulfan’s unobtrusive direction, creates a conversation that is fragmented, rambling, fluctuating from calmness and warmth to heightened agitation, with sudden bursts of anger that flare up and then pass as quickly as they arise. 

 

Tess swigs on a wine bottle, getting progressively more drunk, vocal and sweary as Michelle waits and watches, offering to clean, asking leading questions about Tess’s business and their mother’s involvement in it.

 

They alternate between praise and criticism of each other or defensiveness and self-criticism. There are long pauses, sudden changes of subject, musings and challenging as they talk about mum, men, strangers, business, study, sex, ageing bodies, disappointment, failed dreams and expectations. 

 

Their conversation is peppered with off-stage characters, including Max, Tess’s young son, Max’s father and his mates, the sisters’ mum who casts a cloud over Tess’s world, and a bevy of other characters.

 

The pair only infrequently look at each other, which is perhaps a sign that they do not need social niceties and courtesies that are owed to non-siblings, or it may be that both sisters are preoccupied with their own thoughts, insecurities and anxieties.

 

This is a well-performed, deftly directed and cleverly written 30 minute play that should see the stage more often.

 

Sisters is accompanied in the double bill by Night, another Cortese play, that depicts two women at a night club and is performed by Miles Paris and Kathleen Lee.

 

 by Kate Herbert 

 

Directed by Greg Ulfan

With Miles Paras, Yogashree Thiru, Kathleen Lee

Music by Chris Bolton

Lighting by Shane Grant