I’ll keep this brief, since that seems to be the order of business for this company.

Two solo works, by Toi Whakaari graduates Phoebe Hurst and Emma Fenton.

Kung Faux: Call of the Siren features Hurst in full Beastie Boys undercover cop garb, pulling out all the overacting stops as Mike Fordstaff, wannabe cop.  Inspired his father’s love of by Bruce Lee, he goes out on his own brand of up-holding the law and we meet him recruiting a bunch of rookies into the ranks.  He recalls past jobs, loves and losses, all while bouncing of the walls (literally, most of the time). 

There is plenty of pop-culture referencing fun and lots of hard-boiled strong-jawed writing, with a Kiwi twang.  Hurst finds a neat way to introduce her feminity into the role, with brief snatches of pre-trance music vocals and by cleverly using swift mid-sentence flipping of Aviator sunglasses on and off her face. 

Emma Fenton introduces us to the oddly still, decidedly quirky Silke in Silke’s Big Day Out.  Of unidentifiably Eastern European descent, often scowling, always on the look-out for a boyfriend, she looks like she has been dropped into a heavy day jacket, black leggings and heavy boots, with a tiny head of cropped hair barely poking out the top. 

Based on observations by Fenton while in New York, the work finds its form by imparting stories through the use of slides, to interpret setting, and a myriad of props – hilariously wrangled by Technical Operator, Steve Chudley – to highlight the awkward, alien world that Silke finds herself lost in everyday.

Both works could use a bit of fleshing out, since both together total just short of 40 minutes, including set change between works; maybe a few more emotional obstacles for characters to tackle or simply drop them into situations way outside their comfort zone. 

With a bit of work, each could easily stand up as a full piece in its own right, in any respectable fringe festival environment, as it is clear both performers have strong commitment and ethic to their work which always carries good characters a long way.  

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Developing third year solo pieces is becoming an increasingly viable option for recent drama school graduates. Such is the case with Toi Whakaari grads Phoebe Hurst and Emma Fenton’s double bill show Big Mouths, but where others have stretched their content into an hour-long full-length production or a feature film script, Hurst and Fenton have kept to their 20-minute circumscription.

Kicking off with Kung Faux: Call of The Siren, Hurst bursts onto stage in an instantly recognisable and programme-referenced Beastie Boys ‘Sabotage’ homage. As Mike Fordstaff, Hurst is an amalgamation of Ron Swanson, Ron Burgundy, and Heath Franklin’s Chopper, and …

Following a quick prop set-up which leaves the stage relatively vacant once more, Fenton enters and immediately establishes her titular character in Silke’s Big Day Out. Like Hurst, Fenton has a very specific style of comedy which she honours to the nth degree … [More]  

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer