Melbourne playwright Lally Katz’s play SMASHED takes us into the world of besties, Hazel and Ruby, girlfriends who have shared their childhood and adolescence lives together, and are now on the verge of facing their adult lives.

Walking into the theatre, I was blown away by Rob Miller’s fantastic set. Miller’s set places us so clearly in the their world. Festival lights adorn the walls of the theatre and there were stage minatures, as if they were toys, of childhood memories like family homes and cars, caravan trailers, the local church….

Suzannah McDonald and Katherine Tonkin get up from their seats in the front row, walk up to the front of the stage, and the lights go up.

We soon discover that Hazel is the dominant partner in the friendship. McDonald’s Hazel is extroverted, more than a little kooky, an endless storyteller, and a constant time traveller! Tonkin’s Ruby is passivc, introverted and easily swayed by Hazel’s high spirits and vivid imagination.

The show is a rapid-fire 45 minutes. SMASHED turns on Hazel foretelling, early on in the play, that ill tidings are to come.

My reponse?! I found SMASHED too obscure and cerebral, and in the end, elusive. As a result I didn’t closely engage with the world Katz and director Clare Watson had meticulously created.

SMASHED opened at the SBW Stables theatre, 10 Nimrod Street, Kings Cross on Friday September 9 and runs until Saturday October 1, 2011.

David Kary

13th September, 2011