The gift of a good script is matched by the unwrapping of that gift by a talented director and cast. That’s certainly the case with SHITTY, a trilogy of terror scaring up a superb theatrical thrill in the Belvoir Basement.
Chris Edwards’ hysterical horror show is a hoot from go to whoa, a wow factor bat-shit jamboree of verbal, physical and, literally, visceral entertainment, mordantly black as licorice and just as tasty.
The first story in this triptych of tantalising tales is a dialogue soliloquy between an adulterous duo, two duplicitous actors taking their roles of Gertrude and Hamlet and their characters sub-textual sexual shenanigans from stage to reality and into karaoke in a schizo scherzo that fuses incestuous Danes with Dirty Dancing.
Meg Hyeronimus and Levi Kenway give gilt-edged performances as the edgy guilt laden couple, a pas de deux in a high octane danse macabre.
The second story concerns a gay hookup that builds Queer on queer, a deliciously dark take on the haunted house trope. Roy Joseph and Mark Paguio relish their roles in this hellish and harrowing yet devilishly hilarious double banger of abuse, diabolical karma and funereal fetishism.
The final fable is a sensational axe wielding plunge into the schlock slasher genre with a marvellous monologue of murder and mayhem performed by Ariadne Sgouros. Here be homicidal cellar dwellers, deadly deer and skirmishes not for the squeamish.
It’s all the fun of the fear, frightfully funny and brilliantly orchestrated and choreographed by by director, Zoe Hollyoak, conducting a kudos covered collective of creatives – Morgan Moroney, lighting designer, Madeleine Picard, composer and sound design, Claudia Kryszkwiewiicz, costume designer, and Hailley Hunt, props and set designer.
Compelling in its execution one is forced to admire this display of gleeful playfulness, intricate and precise, a structure haunted by a truth, exalted and ghostly. All wonder. No doubt.
Tragic, comic, ironic, brave, barmy and brimful of megawatt giggle-bites, SHITTY richly deserved its opening night standing ovation. It deserves a standing room only house for its entire run.
Season | 07 – 24 February 2024 Tickets | ONLY $25
Ticket Link | https://belvoir.com.au/productions/shitty/
Venue | 25 Belvoir Street, Surry Hills 2010
Run Time | 80mins