Last year Theatrecomrades presented SHORTS, a performance of three short one act plays in the supper room at the Hawke’s Bay Opera House. This year they present Dog by Daniel Keene, Medea Redux by Neil Labute directed by Sally Richards and Request Stop by Harold Pinter directed by Megan Peacock.

Last year’s production came with the intent of fostering emerging local talent and presenting a provincial audience with works of a category and quality not often seen in small towns. Presented on the stage of the magnificent Opera House, this year’s performance thus forms the second in what Richards and Peacock hope will be an annual event in the Hawkes’ Bay theatre calendar. Let me say now that I am also hoping for this and, if you can, go and see Shorts – at just an hour it won’t be an evening wasted if you are not impressed, but I feel you will be. 

The performance opens with the audience seated onstage, a single table with bare light bulb before us. Labute has written a modern take, and twist, on Medea, relocated to USA. Medea Redux is an interview with us as the silent interviewer – although we do not have all the information and have to be lead toward full understanding.

It is a clever play with a carefully constructed progressive rise in tension toward a climax that, if you know your Greek tragedies, is not a surprise. Sally Richards directs and Melissa Billington as the main character bring us to the climax of the story with punch and, even when we know our tragedies, the performance still moves us beyond our knowledge. 

Billington’s accent places us stateside but she side-steps stereotype to present a distinct and plausible character. Although her American dialect is rapid paced, Billington makes the most of momentary pauses to build tension and uses physical mannerisms to override the confidence in her verbal delivery, effectively suggesting the deeper tortured elements of her character.

After this a very short and unusually light Pinter piece, Request Stop, directed by Megan Peacock. Peacock, who clearly has an affinity for Pinter’s plays, has again worked with local actors. This is a risk but one that provides the province with the opportunity for actors to experience something other than musical theatre.

Here it succeeds as the queue of silent characters wait in growing discomfort and we wait with them. This short works well as a counterpoint to the weight and wordiness of Medea Redux before we plunge again into despair with Keene’s Dog. 

Sam Bunkall, who impressed in the first Shorts, impresses again. Seated onstage we are physically close to a psychiatric inmate in his padded cell, his imagined audience, party to a progressively disturbed monologue.

The proximity of the character and the increasing presence of the character’s insanity are genuinely disturbing – I found myself thinking about making a hasty exit if things turned nasty! Bunkall brings insanity right into our faces. Here Richards and Bunkall connect with us with intensity yet also evoke pity.

I envy the availability of interesting, intelligent, thought-provoking theatre that larger population bases sometimes take for granted and I welcome Theatrecomrades offering of unique and challenging theatre. As I said, if you are in Hastings on Saturday, go to Shorts.  
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