Short and Sweet Week 2- Review

Sydney is treated every year to Short and Sweet Theatre. I can't remember how many times I have been to the festival but it is something I always enjoy.

Week 2 of the festival and we were treated to 9 short plays all around 10 minutes long. Some weeks there are 10 plays all 10 minutes long hence the name Short and Sweet. The great thing about this Festival is that if you don't like one of the plays you only have to endure 10 minutes of it! Also, it is a great platform for writers, and as an audience member you realise how hard it is to write a whole play lasting just 10 minutes.

Here are my thoughts on this week 2's 9 plays. Do remember that for week 3, 4, 5 etc there will be new sets of plays, so you can go each week and see something new. Also, you get to vote for your favourite two on the night, which go through to the Finals and then the Gala Final in April, which again, is one of my favourites.

See if you can guess which two I voted for!

Rat

Bodhirattva "Everybody loves the Cheese!" - This was written and performed by Jeremy Godwin, it was a good start to the night. It is about a rat who wants to eat the cheese on a rat trap but knows the consequences. As he says it is always the second rat who gets the cheese. He tells quite a gruesome story of himself eating the cheese while his brother slowly dies next to him. There are some great lines in this and Jeremy draws a parallel with normal life saying that he is drawn to cheese just as we are drawn to buy things that also have consequences, not necessarily for ourselves but other people.

The huge rat trap and cheese was amazing.

Danny Boy

Danny Boy - This was written by Sandra Fairthorne, the two characters were played by Oli Stening and Lucca Paijmans. The play was set in the visitors room of a prison. It took me a few minutes to get into this play. It did build in tension and intrigue as we find out that they were responsible for their brother's death but only one of them was in prison. This isn't an original concept and unfortunately I felt there wasn't enough emotion.

The Happiest Day of my life - Written by Pete Malicki and the actor was Shereen Nand. It was such a shame as Shereen performed this monologue so well, except for her accent. It changed from Scottish to Irish to the Midlands in the UK and sometimes it was a mixture of all three. The monologue itself was great; it had some very funny lines. Pete is a great writer and I have always enjoyed his work.

Fourth Wall - Written by Stu Boyce, played by Aiden Mckenzie, Nicola Tabuena, Luccas Boyer, Alyssa Gillgren (who also directed). This play started well with two actors finding out what was behind the wall in their apartment, only to find the audience. However, the second part of the play when the two other actors came to the stage was confusing, we realised it was another play but it felt too unconnected.

Bridge - Written and Directed by Debbie Neilson, Cast Christine Firkin, Neil Modra, Greg Thornton, Katie Lees, Lloyd Darling, Olivia Tegart. If you have or haven't been on the Sydney Bridge Climb you will enjoy this. It was very well, directed, written and performed. The Bridge climb leader, which I think was played by Olivia Tegart, was really strong, the warm up at the beginning was hilarious!

The Harsh - Written by Alex Dremann, cast Tim Breadmore, David Green and Skye Butcher. It is the wedding day and the Groom and his best friend have a harsh discussion. I found the discussion a bit hard to follow, talking about the morality of smoking and comparing it to eating bacon sandwiches! There were some great lines though one of my favourites was "have you ever heard anybody over 75 say my joints feel great!" It does all make more sense at the end when you realise the friend is bitter that the Groom got the bride and not him.

Now We Are Ten - Written and Directed by Frank Leggett, cast Miranda Michalowski. This was a monologue recounting how she had killed her father. It was very well written and acted. It was totally believable, I think the whole audience was with her and there were audible gasps when they found out how her father died.

Life - Written by Curtis Harrild, cast - Elias Parker, Alyssa Gillgren, Miroslav Medelijkovic. This was a story about depression and the voices in your head that tell you to do one thing but really you don't want to. The man is at the therapist. Unfortunately this one did fall flat for me. I felt the set was wrong it looked more like the therapist was a receptionist sitting at her desk firing questions at him. She didn't have the warmth or understanding of a therapist. The concept of the play was good; I just didn't feel that it was quite right yet.

Curtain Call - Written and Directed by Alicia Badget, cast Alex Fenner, Andrew Badger, Alicia Badger and James Fitzgerald. I can see why this was the last play of the night as the curtain call for the whole show followed. It was an amusing play with a precious director wanting a flamboyant curtain call and all the other members of the production being exasperated by her.

My one tip to all the actors was to make sure you speak up and slow down, there were quite a few occasions when it was really difficult to hear what they were saying. But, all in all it a great, enjoyable night out which will keep conversations going long into the night and even the next day. Even if you have been before and if you have never been it is something you should put on your annual calendar.

www.shortandsweet.org

Reviewed by Philippa Bird