Playwright Jane Bodie, whose work made such a strong impression last year with Griffin’s production of THIS YEAR’S ASHES, continues to have a presence on the Sydney theatre scene with with Mad March Hare’s production of her award winning set of eight monologues, STILL.
In STILL (2002), Bodie reflects a prism containing eight different short monologues/scenes to explore different aspects of contemporary relationships.
The first piece COME (director Jessica Tuckwell) sees Ben Wood give a sensitive, finely tuned performance as a young man who has finally found a hottie and is shattered when he is unable to perform.
Beccy Iland is in an equally difficult situation in the next scene, FRESH (director Cathy Hunt), when she plays a young woman who has gone for her weekly shop to the local Coles supermarket and spies her ex-boyfriend, in the next aisle, with a new girlfriend. Island captures the wildly oscillating emotions and thoughts that her character experiences.
In the least satisfying piece, NOT CURRENTLY (director Cathy Hunt), Luke McKenzie plays a malcontent serial seducer. Maybe it was just on the night that I went however McKenzie’s performance lacked intensity and the piece was poorly directed by Hunt with McKenzie playing principally to only one small section of the audience, whilst all the other performances were played to the audience at large.
Matthew Millay gave a strong performance as a gay man having to face his ex-partner (yes another ex-partner scene) at a hip night-club in ON (director Lara Kersetes). This was a very effective piece with the projection of various nightclub scenes projected onto a large screen at the back of Milay. One felt like was one at a nightclub, very late at night, and with plenty of drugs around.
In KNOWING, NOT KNOWING (director Lara Kerestes) Amelia Ryan gave a touching performance as a young single woman who had been on the dating scene for a long time. She believes that she has finally found Mr Right and yet she is still not happy and is not sure if she wants to keep him. She is in a constant state of ‘knowing, not knowing’.
Another fine performance is delivered by Matt Hyde in SEEING SOMEBODY (director Fiona Hallenan-Barker). Hyde plays a desire-struck voyeur who every night observes his beautiful young female neighbour from his apartment. One is drawn into his dark, sensual world.
In ORDER (director Scarlet McGlynn) Kellie Jones, showcasing a bright red dress, gives the most vibrant and comic performance of the night as an obsessed single young woman who in the privacy of her apartment role plays every single ‘movement’ that could possibly take place in the date that she is about to go on.
Kimberley Hewes is last but definitely not least in WANT ME (director Jessica Tuckwell). We can feel her pain as she, with plenty of angst, explains her drunken fling to her boyfriend. ‘It was only sex, nothing more’, she tells her partner, who tries to swallow the difficult news.
STILL was an impressive, engrossing night at the theatre. Mad March Mare Theatre’s production was very much to the point, with the effective use of basic props, and the letting of Bodie’s strong writing and the work of some fine young actors, carry the night.
STILL played the Old 505 Theatre, 5th floor 342 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills between the 20th and the 25th March, 2012. This was a trial run by Mad March Hare Theatre (producer Claudia Barrie) and the Company intends to bring this production back to a more established venue later in the year.
© David Kary
28th March, 2012
Tags: Sydney Theatre Reviews- STILL, Jane Bodie, Old 505 Theatre, Jessica Tuckwell, Cathy Hunt, Lara Kerestes, Fiona Hallenan-Barker, Scarlet McGlynn, Ben Wood, Beccy Iland, Luke McKenzie, Matthew Millay, Amelia Ryan, Matt Hyde, Kellie Jones, Kimberley Hewes, Claudia Barrie, Sydney Arts Guide, David Kary