Sydney fringe theatre audiences are still able to enjoy some of the best ‘fruits’ from last January’s ‘Short and Sweet’ season at the Newtown Theatre. Short and Sweet Artistic Director Alex Broun selected nine of his favourite one person shows from the January season and has brought them together in a new season called ‘One’.

I have to admit to enjoying the short play genre. There’s something to be said for only needing a short attention span. What I enjoyed most about ‘One’ was the incredible variety of subject matters that the playwrights chose to explore. I guess the old cliche is warranted- there’s something there for everyone.

Take your pick. Here are some of the choices in ‘One’. There’s a cowgirl of the wild inner West riding the suburban rail network, a young woman having fantasies of doing a streak of a cricket oval for Brian Lara, a World War 1 digger recounting one of his favourite stories from the War, a skit by playwright Noelle Janczewka on the tensions between the Walt Disney characters, Mini and Mickey Mouse, a Balinese woman in Denpassar delivering a presentation to her English class, an actor having to perform major dramatic hijinks to please a bizarre casting director.

It was an enjoyable night in the theatre. These short one-handers still had life in them. I noticed in a recent email that Short and Sweet directors Mark Cleary and Alex Broun are already calling for plays to be submitted for the 2006 season. Long may ‘Short and Sweet’ reign.