Three weeks of hard work has culminated in this and the quality of the plays presented at this year’s Short + Sweet’s Gala Final is a testament to its ability to attract this country’s top and up-and-coming theatrical talent. Organizing such a mammoth production is not an easy task, so congratulations to everybody involved for another successful season.

Here’s a quick rundown on the plays that made it into the Gala Final:

1. The Lighthouse Keeper (Top 30 Week 1)

The story of a lonely and bitter lighthouse keeper and the curious and friendly robot who has taken over his job.

ITC: The Bear of Regret
Playwright: Nic Sampson (NZ)
Director: Nic Sampson
Cast: Tom Sainsbury, Nic Sampson (Nic replace Barnaby Frederic due to illness)

Possibly the play that lost the most momentum since its premiere three weeks ago, The Lighthouse Keeper is an endearing comedy on man’s displacement in an increasingly mechanised world.

Lightweight compared to the other plays on offer, it’s still funny and charming – yet most of the magic has left the building.

2. The South Afreakins (Top 30 Week 2)

Gordon and Helene Van Pattisburg are South Africans that are contemplating the great immigration to New Zealand. Well, one of them is.

ITC: Stampy Theatre Company
Playwright, Director and Cast: Robyn Paterson (NZ)

What starts off as a voyeuristic insight into a South African couple’s daily bickering match convincingly develops as a thoughtful insight into immigration and displacement. Featuring a strong performance by Ms Paterson, as both Mr and Mrs Van Pattisburg, the script cuts deep into the bone.

3. Pēhanga – (Pressure) (Wildcard 2)

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that Totara grow strong in contrary winds, and Pounamu is made under Pēhanga – Pressure.

ITC: Matapihi
Playwright & Director: Rangi Rangitukunoa
Cast: Roimata Fox, Rangi Rangitukunoa, Koikoi Rangitukunoa

Pēhanga is a portrait of an insecure artist.

Another look into domestic life, the theatrical argument between Ms Fox and Mr Rangitukunoa is a bit over the top, but is an interesting look into how actors fight in real life – dramatic.

Script is fine but a shift in tone from its lighter first half to its dead-serious final four minutes is distracting. That said, Ms Fox is hypnotically great.

4. On the Shelf (Top 30 Week 3)

Carrot, Cauliflower and Celeriac find out that it doesn’t matter what your hopes and dreams are – sometimes you’re just destined to end up in the soup.

Playwright: Michelle Wallace (AUS)
Director: Mike Lowe
Costumes: Traci Meek
Cast: Lauren Porteous, Jessie Graham, Phoebe Borwick

This existential cartoon benefits from a stellar ensemble cast and its wonderfully whimsical costume designs. Dialogue between a carrot, a cauliflower, and a celeriac – as they contemplate about their respective destinies beyond the supermarket – is snappy and memorable.

On the Shelf provides another argument for food pornography.

5. Mother’s Milk (Top 30 Week 3)

Son and Dad like a drink. Dad’s trying to get on a plane. Son’s trying not to turn into Dad.

ITC: Funny Thing Productions 
Playwright: Eryn Wilson (NZ)
Director: Curtis Vowell
Cast: Bruce Hopkins, Kelson Henderson

Nostalgic yet solemn, Mother’s Milk could have benefited from a more dynamic direction.

Mr Hopkins and Mr Henderson, as father and son, are good, yet New Zealand playwright Ms Wilson’s script is front and centre the star of the show: it’s vivid and wonderfully written.

6. The Break Up (Top 30 Week 2)

Ever wanted to break up with someone but needed to keep the bed? 

Playwright: Glen Pickering (NZ)
Director: Glen Pickering
Cast: Rohan Glynn, Anthea Hill, Matt Baker, Lauren Porteous/Natahsa Daniel

The Break Up is a sitcom: a couple inquisitively delivers relationship advice to a single friend who may or may not want to be in a relationship.

Uniform performances all around, yet the play feels like an intermission for the other stronger plays on offer. And it does bring us to interval.

7. The Soldier’s Heart and the Feathered Girl (Wildcard 2)

In a house deep in the mountains, in a cellar under the stairs, lives the feathered girl. Trapped to a life of servitude, all is changed when she meets the boy with the heart that breaks.

ITC: ‘Le Petit Workshop 
Playwright/Devisers: Le Petit Workshop: Ella Becroft, Ash Jones, Alisha Laurie Paul, Katrina Wesseling, Ben Anderson
Cast: Ella Becroft, Ash Jones, Alisha Laurie Paul, Katrina Wesseling

Short and sweet, this self-reflexive fairy tale is full of whimsy and charm. In fact, it warrants an extended running time to further challenge the limits of its devisers’ imaginations and creativity.

The Feathered Girl is a really truly lovely play.

8. Riding the Red (Wildcard 1)

Playwright: Grace De Morgan (AUS)
Director: Jesse Hilford
Cast: Lana Walter, Caleb Wright

Two individuals realise they are choosing the wrong partners and the universe offers them an alternative.

Filled with romantic comedy tropes, it’s an effective make-cute between a couple that haven’t met yet. Desperate for romance, happenstance reunites old school acquaintances.

Riding the Red is another play that could have benefited from a more dynamic direction, as its charming script needs a bit more than talking heads on an empty stage.

9. Nine Types of Ice (Top 30 Week 1)

After a tragic accident, two young mothers must face the possibility of losing what they hold most dear.

Playwright: Michael Ripley (Canada)
Director: Matt Gillanders
Cast: Amelia Reynolds, Xavier Black, Isaac White, Miriam Nelson Clark.

Nine Types of Ice has grown a lot since its premiere. On second viewing (and without the weight of its twist), the acting goes up another level and proves it’s its main driving force. 

It’s much more devastating that I remember it.

10. Imperfectly Frank (Top 30 Week 3)

Emotions run high when a time-honored tradition faces a contemporary twist.

Playwright: Seth Freeman (USA)
Director: Alex Lee
Cast: Aman Bajaj, Monica Mahendru, Sangeeta Hariharan, Prasad Joshi 

Imperfectly Frank is a bold and unexpected comedy about an Indian couple forcing their straight son into a gay arranged marriage.

Tongue-in-cheek, it aims to subvert stereotypes while adhering to them and perfectly culminating in a clash of new age and tradition. Alas, it reverts to the social norms required to fulfil its Bollywood ending.

Imperfectly Frank successfully dips its toes into complicated issues without losing its spirit. But next time – dive.

11. The Smell of Rain (Top 30 Week 2)

A chance meeting in a cafe one rainy day could prove life changing for Mike and Serenity – but will it be?

Playwright: Renée Boyer-Willisson (NZ) 
Director: Anna Nuria Francino

Cast: Emma Newborn, Kevin Keys (Kevin replaces Preston Arthur O’Brien due to unavailability)

Another play that uses romantic comedy tropes, The Smell of Rain effectively extracts charm out of small talk. Ms Newborn, as Serenity (!), could have been easily portrayed as a psycho-stalker yet manages to be quirky and appealing instead.

The play lightly touches on career advice for the passionless but successfully sidesteps the trap of being didactic.

12. Supercide (Top 30 Week 1)

Never meet your heroes.

Playwright: Carl Smith (NZ) 
Director: Matt Baker
Cast: Ben Barrington, Paul Lewis

Mr Barrington, as Jaffatown’s Aeroman, is Supercide’s main star as his dramatic delivery successfully undercuts the play’s more predictable dramatic parts. Casting alone is reason enough for Supercide to make it into this year’s Gala Final.

Another year, another Short + Sweet Festival wrapped. See you all next year.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

It is the third week, of the third year of the Short+Sweet Theatre Festival in Auckland. Since its arrival at The Herald in 2010, the ten minute play festival has been firmly embraced by the Auckland Theatre community – emerging and experienced – and has gone from strength to strength. This is the first time Auckland has been able to produce a third week, and while I have missed much of the rest of this year’s festival, compared to the last two years this third week is especially brimming with talent, assurance and boldness. Made up of a 50/50 split of local and international plays, Auckland demonstrates they really understand what makes the festival work and how to utilise the 10 minute theatre form. 

You couldn’t get much bolder than Starving, Carving, Darling, an entirely unexpected Musical by Sally Tran and Tom Sainsbury that opened the second half. Set in an 80s retro-future dystopia, Violet Vickers is an anti-establishment girl who is happy the way she is, unlike her appearance obsessed friends (a chorus of three all dancing, all singing , all shoulder-padded girls!). It’s her fate however to be chosen as the vessel for a rich and aging socialite to transform her consciousness. The bizarre plot is matched by its bizarre music and costumes, a Musical by way of Repo the Genetic Opera. All in ten minutes… [More]

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

The final batch of Short and Sweet plays are certainly short, as ensured by their mandatory ten minute durations.  The palate is considerably more varied than merely ‘sweet’ however, as the ten mini-productions together include political satire, interpretive dance, high-concept humour, slice-of-life drama, flamboyant musical numbers, etc …not to mention a fair few wry observations on the human condition.

One thing’s for sure: you can never know what you’re going to get, which of course is the point; I can’t imagine predictability is on any company’s intended agenda.  Not every clever idea is original but then I suppose not every original idea is clever either.  When you’re into it, it’s nice to be left wanting more, and when you’re not it’s a relief to know it’ll soon be over.

Note: it’s not always clear which cast member plays what role, hence not every character is duly credited.

First up, A Small War, A Very Long Way Away is a broad satire about the British government by Australian playwright Angus Algie.  Michael Morris is the petty, self-absorbed Prime Minister who requires patronising step-by-step guidance by his PR team (Lisa Sorenson and Matt Halliday) in how to respond, not to mention even care, about a nuclear attack on British soil. 

As directed by Benjamin Legg, the humour falls short of the script’s potential while the relentless lampooning of parliamentary types doesn’t really offer anything new.

Second, out-of-towners Northland Youth Theatre offer a new theory on evolution in the delightful Youandamoebaby in which it’s implied not only that sexual copulation was invented by an amoeba, but that it even invented ‘falling in love’ first! 

Written and directed by Miranda Hallett-Pullen, the white leotard-clad cast of Dean Atkins, Zara Skuse, Lutz Hamm and Rachel Boyd demonstrate how even self-reproducing, single celled animals might be capable of existential dilemmas and complex philosophy.

Third, in another Aussie script from Tara Calaby directed by Jessica Wood, Speed Dating features Ria Vandervis and Kura Forrester, alternating characters as they describe themselves to their prospective mates in a speed-dating scenario.  It soon becomes clear that these girls and women represent the different relationships of one man. 

Given for the most part they seem soul-deflatingly problematic (‘Katy’ wouldn’t put out, ‘Megan’ broke his heart, etc), the conclusion is surprisingly uncynical and moving.

Next, Checkmate Productions’ STAGE FRIGHT, written by Jo Sheridan, concerns the efforts of two members of a barbershop quartet (Sheridan, Carol McLinden, Val Rippey and Margaret Aish) in assisting their two colleagues to overcome their stage fright using innovative techniques for ‘systematic desensitisation’. 

The reasonably snappy script is seriously undermined by the cast’s inability to give a naturalistic performance.

Rounding off the first half, the 3^rd and final Australian piece, On the Shelf by Michelle Wallace, might easily have been a scene from Team M&M’s recently well-received The Pantry Shelf, except set in the supermarket vege section.  The premise is essentially the same, as each food product dreams of what they will be cooked into: the forthright Kiwi carrot, the vampish North-England cauliflower and the surly French celerium, bitter (no pun intended) about the fact that no-one knows what she is. 

With amusing and clever turns from Lauren Porteous, Jessie Graham and Phoebe Borwick (and the uncredited vegan shopper), Traci Meek’s vibrant costumes are the icing on the cake.

After the break it’s straight into an ostentatious electro-pop musical on the hazards and pitfalls of the beauty myth.  Written by Sally Tran and Tom Sainsbury (‘Transbury’), and directed by Tran, Starving, Carving, Darling concerns the plight of happy-in-her-own-skin girl next door Violet as she’s descended upon by the evil surgeon and his clutch of vacuous android-like beauty-mythical bimbos. 

The highlight of what turns out to be a kind of Orwellian sci-fi horror is a brace of spectacularly conceived song-and dance showpieces reminiscent of early European techno, courtesy of musicians Joy Ramirez and James Dansey, with an unfortunately jarring technical failure with Violet’s mic on this night.  Despite this the performances are well pitched, and much credit is also due to the unnamed designer of the fluorescent bondage-style costumes.

Next, US playwright Seth Freeman’s Imperfectly Frank, directed by Alex Lee, takes a modern slant on the ancient Indian tradition of arranged marriage.  Franklin’s doting parents are adamant that he should marry into a good (i.e. rich) family, no matter what it takes.  Hence, he is to be wed to a local Punjabi family’s son, despite his vocal protestations, not so much on the grounds of the unfairness of arranged marriage but rather because he’s not gay. 

There are some oddly compelling arguments from the parents, but the laugh-filled scene leads to a fairly contrived idealistic resolution and a feel-good Bollywood finish. 

Eighth up, Spit for Tat by another American (Alex Dremann) stars Grae Burton and Jess Holly Bates as a messed up couple, where she’s only horny if he’s angry, and when he’s in the mood she isn’t. 

The simplicity of the piece, directed by Simon Clark, is ideal for the Short + Sweet format: we enter in the middle of their ongoing codependent warfare and exit in a similar point in the cycle, having glimpsed moments of true connection and understanding which are quickly overshadowed by their habitual psychoses. 

Ninth, Mother’s Milk by local playwright Eryn Wilson is a quietly earnest piece directed by Curtis Vowell.  Bruce Hopkins waits to board a plane, drink in hand, recalling an adult life of anxiety and alcohol dependency.  In another airport his son (Kelson Henderson) waits for his plane to arrive – rather early it seems, considering Dad’s not even boarded yet – and reminisces about what it was like growing up with an alcoholic father, albeit a relatively committed one, reliability issues notwithstanding. 

A touching portrait, considering what a tough call it is to evoke sympathy for two characters’ life stories in ten short minutes. 

To cap it all off, Sauna is written by Lee Smith-Gibbons and features herself, Jessica Joy-Wood, Phoebe Borwick and Kura Forrester, demonstrating their considerable versatility in contrast to their earlier turns.  It’s an oddly high-yet-low note to finish on: three teenage bff-types and one stranger are in the sauna at the gym, gossiping and bitching as they do, led for the most part by Forrester’s insufferably, and hilariously domineering ‘Bron’. 

Big on laughs both pointed and fatuous, as directed by Tom Sainsbury the grim ‘twist’ shifts it from a lightly amusing teenage comedy to something somewhat darker. 

I voted for Sauna on the simple grounds that I liked everything about it.  My friend voted Spit for Tat, I guess for the same reason.  Stay tuned for the final results folks!  

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

The Wildcard 2 session really has a lot going on: drama, comedy, straight fly-on-the-wall-style, high concept epic-style, profundity, escapism, etc.  Overall, for a selection of also-rans (for want of a better term), this particular session maintains an impressively high standard of performance and production values. 

The first, somewhat cerebral piece, Replay written by Angie Farrow and directed by Katherine Hair, is a good choice for getting the ball rolling.  A man in his underwear (Matt Halliday) lies shot by his lover (Breigh Fouy), for reasons that will unfold and then alter themselves as the scenario is repeatedly visited, each time a little different. 

Together with his furry-animal-suit clad ‘other woman’ Sylvia (Isabella Debbage) and her unambitious hot-dog vending paramour Ian (Aman Bajaj), their numerous confusing accounts of how-it-all-happened draw some bewildered chuckles until the amusingly nonsensical climactic twist. 

Devised by the company, Le Petit Workshop’s The Soldier’s Heart and the Feathered Girl is a classic European-style fairy tale about an oppressed feather-covered girl (Ella Becroft) who meets a valiant travelling prince (Ash Jones), who decides to free her from her plight, with bittersweet results.  It takes a few minutes to realise this is not a broad satire but rather an authentic tale of true love and wondrous journeys, with a suitably swelling musical score. 

There is plenty of laughter from the audience, mainly in reaction to the ingenious visual effects, from a cardboard mountain range to various costumes, models and puppets, all deftly utilised to weave a magical fable. 

Next, a significant gear-shift is required to engage with Australian playwright Kate Toon’s Coma Sutra, directed by Ross Anderson, in which coma-victim Matt (Tim McPoland) regales us through highly physicalised narration from some ethereal space within his consciousness, with his tragic life story leading to various bad personal decisions, leading to an altercation with the bus which rendered him into said coma. 

Matt’s hate-filled cynicism belies the play’s true message: an unheard serenade of apology and entreaty to his loyal companion Suze (Helena Grace Treadwell), who visits to sit by him every day despite his betrayal not long before the accident.

MigHT-i Theatre’s offering Mirage, written by Vishal Patil, Devdutt Paranjape and Prashant Belwalkar and directed by Paranjape, is a charming anecdote on cultural direction, told largely through telephone conversations between Indian immigrant Raj calling his brother back home from Auckland where “the public transport is just amazing”(!). 

It’s an ironic comment on familiarity breeding contempt, exemplified by the migrant family’s determination to preserve the old ways, compared to their jaded counterparts in India who are fed up with it and keen to embrace the modern, West-inspired mores.  Another worthy contribution with competent performances from Paranjape, Patil, Supriya Nigudkar, Shweta Divekar, Vaishini Paranjape and Anamika Belwalkar.

Rounding off the first half, Theatre of Love’s offering Moaner is devised and presumably self-directed by the cast.  Set in the Louvre, as evidenced by the presence of Michelangelo’s statue of David (James Wenley), something of a highly strung prima donna conversing Toy Story-like with a scatty, brightly fragmented Picasso (Alexandra McKellar), a surly Sandys’ Helen of Troy (Kaitlin Regal) and the initially tacit, then razor-tongued Mona Lisa, who according to actress Romy Hooper has a Chicago moll’s accent. 

This is really more of a comedy sketch than a proper play, albeit a quirky and entertaining one.

First after the interval, Matapihi’s slice-of-life drama Pēhanga – (Pressure) plays like an illustrative excerpt from an in-depth study, examining the strength of ambitious desire versus the pressures of work-a-day reality.  Playwright/director Rangi Rangitukunoa plays a stressed-out father who yearns for enough space and time to achieve his personal dream of being an actor.  Koikoi Rangitukunoa cuts a convincing pre-adolescent delinquent son, while Roimata Fox is an ostensibly committed partner and stepmother whose lecture on familial responsibility comes across somewhat harsh and insensitive. 

Not your typical crisis/resolution narrative, this is the most realistic piece in terms of style.

Next up, Just Desserts addresses the moral political debate around the rights of condemned convicts, via a heated discussion between a passionate last-meal prison cook and his hardline employer, challenging him on the unnecessary expense in using only the freshest, most authentic ingredients for his subject’s final repast. 

Played with predominately southern accents, it’s not clear whether the split-personality aspect of the play is from Canadian playwright Kelley Baker’s script or imposed by director Jessie McCall.  I’m inclined to think the latter as there’s no clear narrative purpose I can suggest, besides vague curiosity, for the two characters requiring three diverse actors each to portray them, namely Natasha Ross, Kate Castle, Tim McPoland, Suzy Smith, Ciarin Smith and Artemis Kyriacou.

Back to broad-stroke comedy with The Psychologist, in which absurdly pathetic squarehead George (James Crompton) undergoes counseling with his recommended raunchy Russian psychologist (Kate Vox).  The details of his perverse dream, along with his responses to her probing questions, has her convinced he’s gay, and the onus is on him to prove he’s not …but how? 

Given Crompton wrote the script and also directed, this kinky scenario with distinct nods to Python smacks more than a little of personal fantasy wish-fulfillment.

Finally, Ella Becroft directs local stage veterans Bruce Hopkins and Alison Bruce in Slick Dame, an entertaining if clichéd Film Noir pastiche from the pen of American playwright Kay Poiro.  Hopkins is flatfoot Jacob Fleming, a worn out private dick who dreams of retirement, when the archetypal classy dame with the desperate need (Bruce) walks into his life one Valentine’s day. 

The twist is not unpredictable, but the interplay leading up to it is sufficiently witty and authentic in tone.

It all ties up satisfyingly with a rousing curtain call to montage-soundtrack favourite Eye of the Tiger.  Audiences vote for one of these plays to go through to the final:  I voted for Feathered Girl for its completeness, ingenuity and comparative originality.  My companion voted for Pēhanga for its authentic character and emotional impact.  

I look forward to comparing these adventurous works with some of the more ‘favourite’ entries this coming Tuesday… 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

Nine extraordinarily diverse ten minute short works comprise Week 2’s quota of the Top 30 short works in this year’s Short + Sweet Festival. All are of a very high standard – scenarios nicely devised for audience engagement, scripts and sequences carefully polished, interactions meticulously rehearsed, dialogue delivered with conviction, scenographic objects chosen with care … 

I’d hate to be a judge.

The Gospel According to Bowser
Writer: Dan Borengasser (USA)
Director: Mark Scott

Smart writing and cleverly embodied animal characters have considerable appeal in this domestic tale. There’s no fourth wall for Bowser (Matt MacDougall), the family dog with a philosophical bent and a remarkably re-visioned understanding of the Genesis story.

The same goes for the new family kitten Pussums (Lisette de Jong), just arrived from The Pound, and The Rat (Mia Curreen-Poko), who lives in the house with the humans (Tainui Tukiwaho, Danielle Van Resseghem and Mia Curreen-Poko). A great programme opener, and lots of laughs.

Monetum Productions
The Gift
Playwright: Mike Lowe (NZ)
Director: Dan Cowley
Cast: Simon Clark, Mike Lowe.

This bleak, noir-ish two-hander literally hinges on the apartment number: a loose number nine transforms Apartment 19 to Apartment 16 and the Courier-become-Torturer exercises his dark arts on the wrong man.

We never do discover what the intended target had done to earn his red-ribboned ‘gift’, but the accidentally maimed one turns out to be have his own dark secrets. Ugh! A chilling contrast to the domestic bonhomie wrought by Bowser.

Stampy Theatre Company
The South Africans
Playwright, Director and Cast: Robyn Paterson (NZ)

Another domestic setting, this time a kitchen in South Africa where Robyn Paterson alternately presents the well worn arguments and contrary personae of quarrelling couple Gordon and Helene Van Pattisburg.

It all hinges on irreconcilable definitions of “home”. Performed with verve!

Winter’s Collective
Boys’ Outing
Director: Bruce Brown

A Monday morning bus stop this time, with a pair of restless late adolescents waiting for the bus. Ritchie (Ryan Dulieu) is full of grandiose innuendo and hinted-at claims of weekend sex action, his body language a wonderful extra layer enriching the words.  By contrast, Ben (Graham Candy) is slightly down at mouth, anxious, non-committal, unwilling to spill any details.

Eventually, Ben is goaded into telling all… And the twist in the tale produces a crowd-pleasing ending.

The Break Up 
Playwright: Glen Pickering (NZ)
Director: Glen Pickering
Cast: Rohan Glynn, Lauren Porteous, Anthea Hill, Matt Baker

A somewhat hysterical and at times incomprehensible tale of four friends in fancy dress, one of them fully enclosed in an elephant costume.  The elephant man has a super king-size bed purchased for $200 and a spurious promise of undying love for the daughter of the bed-owner.

How to get out of the relationship and keep the bed? Suggestions lead to an attempt at resolution, and …

Nocturne Theatre
The Wedding
Playwright: Kate Prior – based on a short story by Alice Miller (NZ) 
Director: Kate Prior 
Cast: Liesha Ward Knox, Coen Falke 

A story about the difficulty of resolving past hurts, this two-hander attempts to incorporate too many changes of scene in the allotted 10 minutes, but convincingly conveys the awkwardness between the reunited couple and the ever-shifting balance of power in the new relationship.

Though lust wins out on the day, their interactions leave considerable doubt about what might come next. 

A Different Client
Playwright: Josh Hartwell (USA)
Director: Chris Molloy

A flamboyant 30-something male escort (Darren Taniue) arrives at the apartment of an upper-middle-class older man (Rob Williams) and is subjected to a diatribe and a series of loaded questions before his disquieting task is revealed…

The Smell of Rain 
Playwright: Renée Boyer-Willisson (NZ)
Director: Anna Nuria Francino 

This is the most polished, consummately presented work of the evening, and a definite crowd-pleaser. The scenario presents a chance meeting in a café between accountant Mike (Preston Arthur O’Brien), trying to complete a job application for his own job, and the ever-so-mysterious Serenity (Emma Newborn).

There’s no actual indication of why she zooms in on his table and offers him unexpected opportunities, and her potent combination of temptation and subtle persuasion meets considerable resistance. His final decision …?.

Team M&M Productions
The Guilt Sniffer 
Director: Mark Prebble
Cast: Matt Baker, Tatiana Hotere, Marion Shortt, Sheena Irving 

This is a great programme closer, sparkling with wit, highly polished, fast-moving and utterly farcical.  A twisted whodunit, it pitches evidential logic against olfactory evidence, and allows subterfuge to sneak in where it would otherwise fear to tread.

You have to be there to fully appreciate the panache with which this tale is delivered. 
– – – – –
As always, the audience are asked to vote for the work they believe most deserves to be shown again at the final gala show. These votes will bring one show back for the Final, along with one show chosen by the judges.  My choice is The Smell of Rain for its all-round excellence.  

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

The eight short works which comprise the first group of Wildcards in this year’s Short + Sweet provide a charming array of theatrical experiences.  Selected from the works remaining after the Top 30 had been creamed off, these eight are mostly well developed and compellingly presented, and several raise cheers from a highly engaged Saturday afternoon audience.

Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
Playwright: Robert Barr (AUS)

This sparse two-hander maintains tension well, despite the ultimate denouement being rather predictable and some lines hard to hear.  Two political prisoners compare notes on their dire situation. The younger man (Benjamin Murray) protests his innocence: the older man (Amo Ieriko) offers unsettling observations – a mix of advice, cynical asides and gentle inquiries.  Ultimately, the younger man confesses exactly what it was he had said, and the stool pigeon leaves his betrayed cellmate to his fate.

A Cultural Hierarchy 
ITC: Curious Theatre – co-devisors Luke Wilson and Katy Maudlin
Director and Writer: Lucinda Bennett (NZ)

A rather farcical two-hander, very energetically delivered, with an ultimately unsatisfying ending. Sebastian (Luke Wilson) and Angie (Katy Maudlin) are eccentric, somewhat hyper hosts and they are preparing to take the audience on a tour of Pastiche Gallery. Sebastian is an expert on non-representational images of the Madonna and Child; Katy is sent into a state of paralysing fear at the sound of birdsong… This falls into the category of ‘you had to be there’, for me.

Bedtime Monsters 
Playwright: Henrietta Bollinger (NZ)
Cast: Kate Castle, Jodie Ellis (the older sister)

A naturalistically delivered two-hander which feels very credible.  We meet two sisters in the aftermath of a personal disaster: younger sister (Kate Castle) has lost her husband to the flood and is staying with older sister (Jodie Ellis), and her small daughter is worried there’s a gumboot monster in the closet. Older sister sees this as an opportunity for the bereft family to re-settle near her… and younger resists. 

How About Cannons? 
Playwright: David Vazdauskas (USA)
Director: Ben Moore

Tightly scripted, and given a very polished presentation by Simon Clark and Michael Morris as the great composer Peter Tchaikovsky and his younger brother, this one is very predictable if you know the 1812 Overture, but of the music is unknown to you, then it’s reasonably entertaining. Younger brother rescues older from “writers block” to decide on the “instruments” which should provide the finale. Cannons, of course.  

Title: Riding the Red 
Playwright: Grace De Morgan (AUS)
Director: Jesse Hilford 

A tightly scripted set of alternating, eventually overlapping soliloquies which perhaps needs slightly different staging, only bringing the two actors together for the final moments.  The audience gave this one hearty cheers.

Jason (Caleb Wright) is driving out of town to see his girlfriend, but he realises she is really not the woman for him.  Rose (Lana Walter) is at a party keeping an eye on the man she hopes to go home with, and sees him feeling up her primary competitor. 

She realises he’s only a fantasy figure, and gives up on him and all men. Jason muses on his ideal girlfriend as he drives, and remembers a girl from the past. Suddenly he runs out of petrol and has to find a service station. Rose realises she has her period, and she heads for the service station to get some tampons.

As she trudges along, she remembers an old boyfriend from high school and how ideal he was for her.  And yes, they meet at the service station, recognise each other after all these years… and go home together.

A Criminal Mind 
Playwright: Paula Armstrong (AUS)
Director: Jordan Foulds
Cast: Jane Yonge, Ben Moore, Emily Haywood, Tom Carlyle

A very histrionic farce with some surprising twists, and though given a spirited delivery, ultimately unsatisfying.

What looks like trussed prisoners and their captor waiting for a torturer to extort financial information turns out to be a relationship-mending package – the premise being that if the couple are threatened enough to reflect on the value of life, they will reconcile. All very fine, but then the torturer-accountant and the kidnapper-therapist have their own tangled scenario to resolve.

For Our Kind 
Playwright: Michelle Macwhirter (AUS)
Director: Kinloch Anstiss

Set in a post-apocalyptic future when humans live in underwater colonies, this beautifully nuanced script takes on the ultimate issue of human survival and some of the ethical issues which will have to be resolved to achieve it.

The sensitively pitched series of incentives delivered so persuasively by Naval Officer Cooper (Matthew Cousins) are carefully crafted and timed to overcome the doubt, fear, reluctance and hysteria of one the remaining fertile female survivors ‘Madison’ (Belinda Wylie). Nice use of whale songs as an audio cue. 

Mechanics  
ITC: Skux Capacitor
Playwrights: Eli Matthewson & Joseph Moore (NZ)
Director: Eli Matthewson

The likeable performers/ co-writers Eli Matthewson & Joseph Moore certainly have charisma and they carried the audience along in their overalls as they delivered a somewhat confusing tale of best mate mechanics at a P T Chevalier garage and the projects they are working on.

Choosing the one to vote for was tough, and there was much scratching of heads and muttering as audience members ticked their forms. My personal favourites were Riding the Red for its verve and vivacity and not giving the ending away; For Our Kind, for the sophisticated scripting and crafting of personae; and Bedtime Monsters, for providing a very credible scenario sensitively delivered.  In the end I opted for Riding the Red. 

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Emerging NZ playwrights feature in entry level theatre competition’s first week 

Now in its third year, the Short+Sweet entry-level theatre competition has expanded to nearly 50 short plays over three weeks. It’s pleasing to see a healthy proportion of emerging New Zealand playwrights included in this first-week season of nine plays, and while the acting and directing is uneven, the constant show-changing – with suitable theme-supporting music – keeps things fresh. 

My vote this week goes to Nic Sampson’s amusing Lighthouse Keeper, the title referring to a robot (played with just the right digital intonation by Barnaby Fredric) rather than the human he replaced (Tom Sainsbury, in perfect red pompom hat and blue raincoat). Sally Sutton’s Do Not Pull, about four tourist gal pals, is also charming and well-costumed, the only light slice of life among the skits, melodramas and monologues. [More] 

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Death, murder and suicide seemed to dominate the themes for Week 1 of Short + Sweet 2012. To be honest I could have done with a little more levity and a little less gravity. Thank goodness for the reprieve provided by The Lighthouse Keeper, Wisdom of Solomon and Supercide.

Speaking of Supercide, the reason this one is not being classified as dark as dismal in my books is because it was extremely cleverly written using familiar super hero references but in a pleasing tongue-in-cheek manner. [More] 

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New Zealand always had talent.  

Now in its third year, Short+Sweet returns to the Herald Theatre with an extended run of three weeks compared to last year’s two. Apart from that, the festival has not changed much and it shouldn’t: it remains this country’s prime place for theatre artists to play, to experiment and to be creative.

As usual, each week (and from its two Wildcard shows), one judges’ choice and one people’s choice will head into the festival’s Gala Final to go for the gold.

[Note: Due to the last minute withdrawal of one of the scheduled plays, there are only 9 plays in the Top 30 – Week 1.)

Title: Stiff Justice
Playwright: Kerrie Ann Spicer (NZ)
Director: Bryan Johnston
Cast: Johnny Aukusitino, Preston Arthur O’Brien, Nick MacDuff

Kerrie Ann Spicer’s Stiff Justice feels like it was first written for the screen before it found itself on stage. A young cocky cop finds himself trapped in a morgue, and well… you can kind of guess what happens next.

Earnestly performed by its cast, the material itself lacks enough bite to truly engage and features crime procedural detail, which doesn’t translate well on stage.

Title: Do Not Pull
Playwright: Sally Sutton (NZ)
Director: Kate Vox
Cast: Amelia Reynolds, Xavier Black, Jessie Graham, Liesha Ward Knox

Possibly the most successful play from this week’s list, Sally Sutton’s Do Not Pull is a quirky little number, which works wonderfully within the confines of its ten-minute running time. Four girls visit Italy to shop, drool over Italian men, and contemplate a rogue piece of rope (it’s a metaphor!). Think hysterical version of Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.

Kudos to director Kate Vox for casting these four ladies – great character actresses who bounce against each other well, creating the necessary feeling of history between them. That said, Liesha Ward Knox has a bit of an edge.

Title: 50 Guns
Playwright: Alex Broun (AUS)
Director: Ron London Haretuku
Cast: Emma Fenton

Part history on ballistics and part self-reflective piece on obsession, Alex Broun’s 50 Guns is a solid one-woman piece. Emma Fenton, surrounded by an orgy of pistols, lists significant moments in gun-related deaths throughout history as she drives herself to a personal catharsis.

The precarious balance between Ms Fenton’s dry delivery of information and the dramatic unravelling of her private life is essential here, as prioritising one over the other could be this play’s downfall.  

Title: Hope
ITC: Indigenous Theatre Group
Playwright: Chantal Samuela (NZ)
Director: Jay Williams
Cast: Jay Williams, Hannelle Harris, Stacey Motu

Hope, directed by Jay Williams, wears its heart on its sleeve. Saddled with a heavy subject – i.e. the aftermath of an abortion – the script is a tad overwritten and the direction a bit overdone.

Hope unashamedly veers heavily towards the didactic and the melodramatic. That said, Hanelle Harris, as the woman who decides to have the abortion, is a diamond in the rough.

Title: The Lighthouse Keeper
ITC: The Bear of Regret
Playwright: Nic Sampson (NZ)
Director: Nic Sampson
Cast: Barnaby Fredric and Tom Sainsbury

As a lighthouse keeper’s son is busy writing a memoir of his father’s legacy, an automated lighthouse-operating robot intervenes in his productivity. The issue with The Lighthouse Keeper is its uncanny resemblance to The Flight of the Conchords, which prevents it from being considered fresh. The lighthouse keeper’s son features too much Rhys Darby-isms and the French-made robot, dressed in cardboard and aluminum, won’t be out of place in the Conchord’s music video for Robots – only this time, this robot has mild Tourettes.

However, all this is forgivable. Both Mr Fredric and Mr Sainsbury are hilarious and deliver a tight script as if it was improvised.

Title: Wisdom Of Solomon
Playwright: Tristram Baumber (AUS)
Director: Phil Brooks
Cast: Grae Bruton, Jeremy Pickford, Coen Falke, Natalie Sames, Amanda Raines, Gonzalo Deza.

There’s something so perfect about how imperfect Wisdom of Solomon is. Directed by Phil Brooks, it is a comedy set in Medieval times, with a king obsessed with splitting things in half. With a chaotic script and larger than life characters, Mr Brooks is successful in pulling everything together, producing a fun and funny comedy of manners.

Here, the male actors steal the show: Jeremy Pickford’s king is awesomely camp and reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts, as Coen Falke’s mysterious traveller is logical and idealistic – an essential anchor to this frenzied play.

Title: Nine Types of Ice
Playwright: Michael Ripley (Canada)
Director: Matt Gillanders
Cast: Amelia Reynolds, Xavier Black, Isaac White, Miriam Nelson Clark.

With a couple of nips and tucks, Nine Types of Ice, directed by Matt Gillanders, is the play with the most potential. Two mothers anxiously wait for news after a school bus goes off-road in a tragic accident. The performance of its two main leads are great, but keeping it all together is Amelia Reynolds, who’s portrayal of a mother in a serious ethical situation is rather sublime.

There are several directorial decisions that feel out of place in its otherwise promising production. One request: the sound of a crying baby at the end seriously undercuts Ms Reynolds strong work. Please cut it.

Title: The Flowers
Playwright: Pete Malicki (AUS)
Director: Jonathan Hodge
Cast: Sheena Irving 

There’s something a bit off with The Flowers’ opening night performance. Here, a woman vividly recollects how everyone she’s ever loved and met dies in dramatic ways after interacting with her.

The script is funny, punchy and non-sentimental. However, Sheena Irving needs a bit more polishing to really dive into this script’s comedic and dramatic parts.

Title: Supercide 
Playwright: Carl Smith (NZ)
Director: Matt Baker
Cast: Ben Barrington, Paul Lewis

To close things off, Supercide features a superhero with existential issues. Jaffa Town’s local superhero, Aero Man, wants to commit suicide but an unexpected encounter with a pencil pusher makes him think twice.

Ben Barrington, dressed in a naff superhero costume (complete with white gumboots), looks the part. The material itself is fine but the performances, which started very strong, for some reason lost momentum half way through. As it is, it feels like it needs another week in the oven. 

And there you have it. Short+Sweet’s opening night encountered a couple of hiccups but nothing a little bit of editing couldn’t fix. With a little more finesse, a little more polishing, and a little more confidence, any of these nine plays could potentially get into the Gala Final.

Personally, I voted for Nine Types of Ice. I always cheer for the underdog. 

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