Irrepressible Urge is another devised show with four parallel stories told in cut up bits.

One takes a fresh look at the traditional dragon vs princess fairytale, with an enchanting performance by Barry Lakeman as the aged dragon.

Even more gripping is Jackson Coe’s leap into the mind of a peeping tom which is in equal measure unnerving and moving.

The third story takes place in a second hand bookshop, where Sam Ennor and Aimee-Lynn Marshall play two lonely hearts which should beat as one – if they ever decide to choose reality over fantasy.

The fourth, about two half sisters who have the hots for each other, is not nearly as successful as the others.
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At the start of Irresistible Urge the cast is seen reading and at the side of the stage is a huge stack of books of all shapes and sizes. The best way to explore this urge to tell stories, to listen to stories, to act out stories and to imagine ourselves in a story is, of course, to perform some.

The nine actors tell four stories but each character has his or her relationship to storytelling and stories. Scott (Jackson Coe in a brilliant and creepily funny performance) is a Peeping Tom who in his accounts of following girls home and peering into a girls’ changing room makes us almost sympathetic to his urge but he makes us voyeurs too.

Laurie (Sam Ennor) runs a second-hand bookshop in a manner akin to Basil Fawlty and his only friend is his cat who pisses on his books but he has a client in Angelique (Aimee-Lynn Marshall) whose shyness drives her into romantic daydreams, which seems odd in that she reads The Handmaid’s Tale.

Then there’s a story about a dragon (a green-faced Barry Lakeman in a magnificent costume) and a princess (Kirsty McGuire) that deconstructs the children’s fairy tale, while the Woodward sisters (Tasmin Dashfield, Karin Reinholt) are two very different peas in a pod; one lives through her connection to others through the net, Facebook, twitter, etc, the other who gets confused in life by imagining it is literature.

They all have happy endings – of sorts.
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Storytelling is a particularly human preoccupation that permeates our lives more than we may realise. It comes in many forms, styles and genres, which may offer us the means of escape, access to ‘truth’ or both, simultaneously.

The ‘Quite Sensible’ co-op, directed by Brooke Smith-Harris, has devised a series of stories about stories that mostly start in the escapist realm and work through to some kind of ‘reality’.

Stack of books adorn the stage (set design by Matt Bialostocki, lit by Tamsin Dashfield) and initially people we will come to know better lie, sit and stand about reading …

Jackson Coe’s story is surprisingly engaging given his character, Scott, is compulsive prowler, stalker and peeping Tom. Eventually we discover why he has abandoned the usual routes to companionship, intimacy and sexual pleasure. In the process of his telling his story, he becomes self aware – a little too neatly, perhaps – and is able to ‘move on’.

An ancient and legendary dragon, wonderfully realised by Barry Lakeman – in an excellent outfit (costume design credited to  Katharina Paetzold and Anna Bailey) – is found by Kirsty McGuire’s rather passive warrior princess, Catherine. She turns out to be feeling guilty about her mindless fidelity to conditioned beliefs about what’s needed for her to fulfil her destiny. In the end, this story is about forgiveness and personal responsibility.

Two very different sisters, Jess (Tamsin Dashfield) and Lucy (Karin Reinholt), and their half-sister Regina (Sahra Smith), have an Aunt Z (Marjorie McKee) in common, who travels the world and writes stories of her adventures in a journal. But Jess is bored with her camel tales while compulsively texting to her blog, twitter, facebook and flicker accounts.

The more sophisticated and dreamy Lucy, who has escaped NZ and returned,  draws her world view from Shakespeare’s Dark Lady sonnets and is deeply attracted to Regina (“OMG,” twitters Jess, “can half-sisters be lovers? Gross!”). Regina, who throws a die to determine who and how to be, since “the accident” (unspecified) reciprocates. But maybe Lucy would rather pine for it than let it happen …

The second-hand bookstore is run by the shambling Laurie (Sam Ennor), who has a ‘fuck buddy’ and a problematical peeing tomcat, and is grudgingly kind to the excruciatingly awkward Ange (Aimee-Lynn Marshall). She is in unrequited love with Mark, doubled by Ennor in beautifully sung musical fantasy sequences in which he and Angelique declare their everlasting love. The more realistic resolution to this relationship is as sweet as it is predictable.

As a theatre piece Irrepressible Urge could have gone deeper and darker and been more dramatic. As a quick ‘scan read’ of a few of the many ways stories inform our lives, however, it offers an intriguing ‘tip-of-the-iceberg’ hour.
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