Above : Performer Charles Mayer
Carol Dance’s Scene Theatre Sydney’s inaugural WORLDS ALIVE 2025 play festival took place last weekend over three performances.
The festival featured eleven short plays from the countries, Singapore, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Iraq, South Africa, India and Jamaican (in Rastafarian) performed script in hand.
My favourite pieces. South African playwright’s Pieter-Dirk Uys piece NELSON’S WARDEN – a comic monologue where Nelson Mandela’s friendly prison guard is amused by the busloads of tourists coming to see Mandela’s prison cell. Nelson Mandela was a fan of Pieter-Dirk Uys.
South African playwright Ismail Mohamed’s play CHEAPER THAN ROSES, was a heartfelt monologue spoken by a young woman who ‘passes’ as White, and for good reason. This short poignant play was heart-felt realism,
Indonesian playwright Agnes Christina’s MANGO CITIZENSHIP, a light satirical piece where different mangos compete for who is the true, authentic mango.
Ukrainian playwright’s Kateryna Penkova’s play TEMPORARILY DISPLACED PERSONS was by far the darkest and sadly most realistic piece depicting a young woman fighting a losing battle as she tries to find accommodation for the growing number of people who have been displaced by the war in Ukraine, now over three year’s old.
The plays were performed with commitment and vibrancy by Jo Bloom and Charles Mayer with Tiang Lim performing in MANGO CITIZENSHIP and Leonie Ragi playing in the Papua New Guinean play WHICH WAY, BIG MAN?
Highly regarded pianist Michael De Huy gave a half an hour recital before the play readings began, and tinkled away at the ivories as the actors readied themselves for the next vignette.
The performances were well received by an enthusiastic audience.
Tbe ever inspirational Festival Director Carol Dance, eighty years young, already has plans for a second Worlds Alive play festival at the same venue, the recital space for the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, facing the entrance to the Sydney Dance Company, Pier 4/5, Walsh Bay Arts Precinct in March 2o26.
