Petty Grievances
ONEONESIX - 116 Bank Street, Whangarei
27/09/2024 - 12/10/2024
Production Details
Laura Yakas - creator, writer, performer
Are you seeking a show with substance? A show that makes you think deeply about the sorry state of our world? Well, this is not that show!
Petty Grievances is not about heavy existential stuff, it’s about the banal bothers of everyday life. The tiny papercuts of modern adulting: things like taxes, traffic, forehead wrinkles and loud neighbours.
These kinds of grievances are petty (hence the title of the show), but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important! Petty grievances can be helpful distractions from the bigger and scarier grievances that are out there (“I can’t do much about climate change, but I can Botox my forehead!”). Petty grievances can remind us that we’re not alone, that we’re part of a community of people who share the same infuriating experiences (“OMG, how about that traffic this morning?”). And petty grievances can also be a great source of comedy!
So come along and revel in a night of musical comedy about the kinds of petty complaints that have distracted, frustrated and sustained small talk for generations.
WHANGĀREI FRINGE FESTIVAL 2024
Friday 27 September, 9:30pm
ONEONESIX, 116A Bank St
Saturday 12 October, 9:30pm
ONEONESIX, 116A Bank St
https://whangareifringe-premier.eventfinda.co.nz/2024/petty-grievances/whangarei
Laura Yakas
Music , Stand-up comedy , Theatre , Solo ,
60 minutes
Burning up with laughter and it feels so right
Review by Vincent Nathan 02nd Oct 2024
“I have been here before” I think to myself: Miss Anthropy and Slut Songs as stand-alone titles evoke so many quirky, welcome and un-welcome familiar emotions that my expectation walking in to the theatre is lustful and greedy with a smutty smile (and cheap perfume to boot). I’m hoping to receive an extreme overdose of sinful pleasure served up with a side of artistic musicality, but alas I am wrong. Instead, my insatiable appetite for Laura’s previous designs is swiftly shifted to a new reality.
The stage is set with simplicity a chair, laptop, guitar and spotlight. The cascading audience chairs I reimagine as a spaceship as I climb aboard with an intimate crew, ready to embark on what I only feel to be a warp speed, round Saturn and back mission – and boy, am I right!
Throughout the entire show I am enticed by tales of intelligent muck-ups that annoy the living daylights out of your soul. I catch myself grinning, unable to stop, and hope no one notices my comical expression of anticipation. A quick glance around confirms I’m not alone. Everyone looks as captivated as I feel.
Familiar faces within the audience engage verbally with Laura Yakas as she slays the guitar with folk and blues tones that has an audience bobbing our heads, tapping our feet or just jumping for pure joy inside, her vocal tones echo through mine own ears with velvet notes and carefully crafted songs which conjure up a mixture of cartoonish humour, hillbilly twang, and pop sensibility that reverberate back and forth from performer to audience.
As I watch Laura Yakas unleash a tirade of expletive experiences assigned to petty grievances, I find myself believing the unhinged educational experience of these stories. My happy tears feel hot on my skin. I’m burning up with laughter and it feels so right.
Laura’s animated, quirky expressions have me fully strapped in for the entire flight. I praise the artistry of those who produce solo works. Petty Grievances is one of those works that deserves such praise, for it is but one apple eaten from what I can only believe must be an abundant tree of works to come.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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