Jimmy Dalton’s show ALL MADE UP will appeal mostly to theatre patrons who appreciate more alternative theatre experiences, and for that matter, alternative venues. ALL MADE UP does not take place in the main Bondi Pavilion theatre, nor in the smaller Seagull Room. The play takes place in a more intimate venue…A theatre dressing room.
In the room, Dalton has a captive audience…It must be said that it’s an audience that not many actors would fantasise about. The dressing room has a maximum capacity of about ten people.
Jimmy holds fort on his life-long passion for make-up. He tells lots of stories…My favourite being about when he was performing in a school play, heavily made up, dressed to the nines. His mother told him later that the show he looked just like her mother. Kind of nice, Jimmy thought…He had never met his grandmother. She died when he was very young.
The play’s recurrent theme…that we don’t have any control over the face that we get and that what’s so good about experimenting with makeup. It means that we are able to play around a lot with the face that we do have.
ALL MADE UP is a playful piece. Early on, Dalton tells us that this isn’t going to be a conventional night’s theatre. Well…it has to be said, that we won’t shocked by this pronouncement. He warned that he was not going to be doing all the performing and all the work alone…there was going to be audience participation. Not in the usual way, however..We were all going to participate equally. The first step- We all had to walk across to the dressing table…Whilst standing in front of the mirror, without looking at the paper, we had to do a quick sketch of our faces and then return to our seats with portrait in hand.
During the show, there were no great insights, nothing extraordinary happens…. It is basically a bit of fun with a few rumination thrown in. Dalton is a modest, affable, convivial host and raconteur.
Jimmy Dalton’s show ALL MADE UP is playing for only two more nights, Friday 6th and Saturday 7th December. Book in early to avoid disappointment. After all, we are talking a dressing room!