Everything from slice-of-life realism through to surrealistic flights of fancy are on display in the second week of the Short+Sweet Festival. The pressure-cooker intensity of a 10-minute time limit has stirred up an outpouring of creative energy that covers a rich variety of theatrical forms.

Several works look for a pathway through the minefield of relationship issues, with playwright Adam Szudrich finding a fresh perspective on sexual politics as he asks us to consider the hapless husbands of black widow spiders, while the We Are Sailors company offers a macabre twist on the concept of a trophy partner. [More]

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Is it already an entire year since the Herald Theatre was last overrun with enterprising crews of capable, spirited practitioners*?  Actually not quite: 2012’s programme played in September/August.  No matter. 

We Are Sailors’ Feature Wall, directed by Phoebe Borwick is presumably devised with the cast of Saraid Cameron and Susannah Smith-Roy, as industrious female psychopaths Pat and Dot and a handful of hapless token blokes.  A well-chosen opener with a bit of everything: contrasting characters, humour, violence, death, desire, intrigue, a macabre set, a little black dress and a perversely heart-warming musical number.   

Where You’d Least Expectby Aroha Awarau is an endearing character-piece directed by Simon Clark with genuine charm, which sees actors Cassie Baker and Matt Baker brought together by fate on the iconic Short + Sweet sofa.  On this occasion it’s in a cheap motel room, and the lovable pair are the unlikeliest of awkward wallflowers at a low-budget swingers’ party. 

Theatrical auteur James Crompton is writer, director and co-star of true-story based Hongi, also starring Lee Ah Yen Fa’atoia, whose cardboard ATM machine is also an impressive prop.  Essentially a simple cautionary tale, Compton’s slow-witted patsy character is as frustratingly compliant as his new best mate is silver-tongued and menacing. 

Spidermen exploits every available ironic gender-role-reverse-cliché that playwright Adam Szudrich could cram into the strict timeframe.  Monica Mahendru directs Daley Winter and Preston O’Brien as an amusing couple of sensitive romantic male arachnids living in abject fear of their wives’ cannibalistic urges.  More comedy sketch than play, with excellent costumes.

Deftly scripted by Pete Malicki and directed by Catherine Boniface, V.D. has Jess Holly Bates as Sophie the lonely caustic cat lady in training, cynically anticipating another solitary, chocolate-loaded February 14^th when a mysterious anonymous delivery sends both her hopes and paranoia into overdrive. Albeit an outstanding tour-de-force solo performance, when she gets worked up Bate’s gnashing teeth can tend to upstage her (a bit like Sam Neill’s mo in Harry). 

Concluding the first half, writer/director Glen Pickering’s Our Last Holiday is the most straightforwardly dramatic piece of the evening.  Matt Baker (again) plays an embittered film director, slugging cheap scotch and looking at scripts when his ex-wife (Sheena Irving) arrives to clear out her things.  A solid piece with a psychological twist, when supportive producer friend (Rohan Glynn) arrives we begin to understand what is actually going on. 

Second-half opener Fruit Salad is an exuberantly rampant comedy by Jodie Ellis with echoes of Ab Fab. Directed by Christine Becker, Ellis plays Jade, the sensible long-suffering daughter to her jet-setting gay party-animal father (Simon Shreeve), coming to his rescue when an extended debauchery-filled Cuban holiday comes to an ignoble end.  Brisk and hilarious, it is book-ended by scenes requiring impressively speedy costume changes. 

Northland Youth Theatre are back in town next, following up last year’s ambitiously conceptual amoeba sex-comedy. Lust Is Blind is written and directed by Summer Millett and skillfully performed by Georgia-May Pope, Ava O’Brien, Kipling Davies-Colley and Zelde Morrison-Smith as a quartet of bickering facial components: forehead, nose, and two eyes – one green, one blue (David Bowie’s perhaps?).  Easily the most original piece of the night, if not the most theatrically effective.

Hot on their heels, The Blue Balloon boasts the largest cast, and probably takes the runner-up prize for originality, although it is somewhat reminiscent of classic 50s French film The Red Balloon, in that it explores the effect that a seemingly supernatural occurrence has on an entire community. Written by Angie Farrow and directed by Jesse Hilford, and laden with numerous charming, engaging characters, the density of this work would require a second and possibly third watch to properly grasp its nebulous message. 

Not kept busy enough performing two lead roles, Matt Baker directs playwright Greg Gould’s Last Drinks.  Rachael Blampied plays the luckless would-be bride opposite (also again) Rohan Glynn’s oddly frank multiple failed-suicide case.  An appealing piece of work hinging on the kind of morbid humour that can be quite refreshing in an existential reality-check sort of way. 

Finally, Dead Leg Theatre Company’s Lucky C*nt-ry is a multi-character two-hander directed by & featuring Jess Holly Bates (again once again) with Romy Hooper, alternately presenting a series of cosmopolitan, upmarket, down-home and various in-between personages expounding what they find worthwhile and/or challenging about life in this glorious country.  The uncredited script utilises a compelling vernacular, whereby every line is prefaced with ‘Tell her…’, ostensibly offering advice on how to explain these issues to a young child.

Whew! So, eleven shorts do make quite a long night, but not as long as it could seem with a less driven, connected and energetic assortment of companies producing a truly professional evening of bona fide entertainment. Of course having imbibed eleven distinct and eclectic works of varying brain-challenging degrees, there’s inevitably a kind of arbitrary aspect to voting immediately afterwards. 

Not to detract from how effective and entertaining the more skit-like examples are, I tend to favour the story-led works. Still there’s any one of five shows I might have ticked in a different moment. As it happens, I chose Last Drinks for its minimalism and dark humour.   

* I almost said spirited young practitioners … While plenty of people involved are properly grown up, ‘getting on’ even, the overall vibe is essentially a peppy, youthful one.  Not to mention that the ten-minute format could be regarded by some as ideal for the attention span of the modern youth.

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