Shopping and @!#$.
Sun, 17 June 2001, 05:22 pmWalter Plinge3 posts in thread
Shopping and @!#$.
Sun, 17 June 2001, 05:22 pmI wondered why no one had reviewed Shopping and @!#$ here, especially considering a couple of regulars to this site were in it. Then I saw it.
Wow. How do you review this play? To say "I enjoyed it" would be wrong because it's not an "enjoyable" piece. Many people describe a movie or show that they really enjoyed as a piece that took them on a "roller-coaster ride of emotion", made them laugh one minute and cry the next.
Shopping and @!#$ didn't make me cry, it was so sad that all I felt was numb. It made me laugh but it was mostly a kind of "this is too intense for words" kind of laughter. The ride that Shopping and @!#$ took me on was unlike any journey that any live performance had ever taken me on. I felt things that I rarely, if ever, feel because this was a reality so far from my own.
Jane Colenutt, Mike Frencham, Gibson Nolte and David Meadows were all excellent. After the initial scene I forgot that they were actors. I believed their characters and I liked them all as much as I hated them.
Leon Ewing was amazing. I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn't really fourteen years old so that I could cope with what was going on in front of me.
I liked the simple design and lighting, I liked the music and the way it was used but I can't say I liked the play. It was an incredible, confronting piece but "liked" is just not the right word. Like "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Boys Don't Cry", I "experienced" Shopping and @!#$. Wow.
Wow. How do you review this play? To say "I enjoyed it" would be wrong because it's not an "enjoyable" piece. Many people describe a movie or show that they really enjoyed as a piece that took them on a "roller-coaster ride of emotion", made them laugh one minute and cry the next.
Shopping and @!#$ didn't make me cry, it was so sad that all I felt was numb. It made me laugh but it was mostly a kind of "this is too intense for words" kind of laughter. The ride that Shopping and @!#$ took me on was unlike any journey that any live performance had ever taken me on. I felt things that I rarely, if ever, feel because this was a reality so far from my own.
Jane Colenutt, Mike Frencham, Gibson Nolte and David Meadows were all excellent. After the initial scene I forgot that they were actors. I believed their characters and I liked them all as much as I hated them.
Leon Ewing was amazing. I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn't really fourteen years old so that I could cope with what was going on in front of me.
I liked the simple design and lighting, I liked the music and the way it was used but I can't say I liked the play. It was an incredible, confronting piece but "liked" is just not the right word. Like "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Boys Don't Cry", I "experienced" Shopping and @!#$. Wow.
Walter PlingeSun, 17 June 2001, 05:22 pm
I wondered why no one had reviewed Shopping and @!#$ here, especially considering a couple of regulars to this site were in it. Then I saw it.
Wow. How do you review this play? To say "I enjoyed it" would be wrong because it's not an "enjoyable" piece. Many people describe a movie or show that they really enjoyed as a piece that took them on a "roller-coaster ride of emotion", made them laugh one minute and cry the next.
Shopping and @!#$ didn't make me cry, it was so sad that all I felt was numb. It made me laugh but it was mostly a kind of "this is too intense for words" kind of laughter. The ride that Shopping and @!#$ took me on was unlike any journey that any live performance had ever taken me on. I felt things that I rarely, if ever, feel because this was a reality so far from my own.
Jane Colenutt, Mike Frencham, Gibson Nolte and David Meadows were all excellent. After the initial scene I forgot that they were actors. I believed their characters and I liked them all as much as I hated them.
Leon Ewing was amazing. I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn't really fourteen years old so that I could cope with what was going on in front of me.
I liked the simple design and lighting, I liked the music and the way it was used but I can't say I liked the play. It was an incredible, confronting piece but "liked" is just not the right word. Like "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Boys Don't Cry", I "experienced" Shopping and @!#$. Wow.
Wow. How do you review this play? To say "I enjoyed it" would be wrong because it's not an "enjoyable" piece. Many people describe a movie or show that they really enjoyed as a piece that took them on a "roller-coaster ride of emotion", made them laugh one minute and cry the next.
Shopping and @!#$ didn't make me cry, it was so sad that all I felt was numb. It made me laugh but it was mostly a kind of "this is too intense for words" kind of laughter. The ride that Shopping and @!#$ took me on was unlike any journey that any live performance had ever taken me on. I felt things that I rarely, if ever, feel because this was a reality so far from my own.
Jane Colenutt, Mike Frencham, Gibson Nolte and David Meadows were all excellent. After the initial scene I forgot that they were actors. I believed their characters and I liked them all as much as I hated them.
Leon Ewing was amazing. I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn't really fourteen years old so that I could cope with what was going on in front of me.
I liked the simple design and lighting, I liked the music and the way it was used but I can't say I liked the play. It was an incredible, confronting piece but "liked" is just not the right word. Like "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Boys Don't Cry", I "experienced" Shopping and @!#$. Wow.
Amanda ChestertonWed, 20 June 2001, 06:27 pm
RE: Shopping and @!#$.
I am in the same mind as Gill - that is I was not 'entertained' by this show in the traditional sense, rather I was engrossed for the duration, as one would be when, say, slowly driving by a four car pile-up.
While I was not altogether fond of the script - unfortunately Trainspotting and Lock, Stock reached us before this play did, thus deadening our shock-responses to drugged up losers and funny-but-brutal gangsters - my, er, enjoyment of the play was due wholly to the cast. I've seen Gibson a few times in shows around the traps, but this counts to me as his best performance to date. Ron Banks, in his review, commented that the cast looked too healthy to be drug addicts. Well, sorry Ron, but this is theatre - not movie realism. I thought the whole cast, especially Gibson, looked as crappy as one possibly can in live theatre, and their terriffic performances only enhanced this image.
Leon Ewing was extraordinarily disturbing as the fourteen year old. He lost his accent occasionally (as did Gibson - although I think you'd have to be listening pretty carefully, and be familiar with his normal accent, to notice) but his insouciant performance as the juvenile rent-boy was chilling.
Mike Frencham was great. I don't know why I haven't seen him in stuff before. I don't go out enough...
Jane Colenutt was amazing as well. I'd really like to go back to England now so the rest of us at least have a chance at being cast in shows in Perth - with her around there's no hope.
David Meadows was bloody awful as usual. Brought down the whole tone of the show...
While I was not altogether fond of the script - unfortunately Trainspotting and Lock, Stock reached us before this play did, thus deadening our shock-responses to drugged up losers and funny-but-brutal gangsters - my, er, enjoyment of the play was due wholly to the cast. I've seen Gibson a few times in shows around the traps, but this counts to me as his best performance to date. Ron Banks, in his review, commented that the cast looked too healthy to be drug addicts. Well, sorry Ron, but this is theatre - not movie realism. I thought the whole cast, especially Gibson, looked as crappy as one possibly can in live theatre, and their terriffic performances only enhanced this image.
Leon Ewing was extraordinarily disturbing as the fourteen year old. He lost his accent occasionally (as did Gibson - although I think you'd have to be listening pretty carefully, and be familiar with his normal accent, to notice) but his insouciant performance as the juvenile rent-boy was chilling.
Mike Frencham was great. I don't know why I haven't seen him in stuff before. I don't go out enough...
Jane Colenutt was amazing as well. I'd really like to go back to England now so the rest of us at least have a chance at being cast in shows in Perth - with her around there's no hope.
David Meadows was bloody awful as usual. Brought down the whole tone of the show...
Rohan ShearnThu, 26 July 2001, 02:39 pm
RE: Shopping and @!#$.
Well, I didn't see the Perth production but I did see the 1997 Melbourne Festival production. It really is only a sensationalist piece of writing. MF97 had a sold out season mainly due to its title and some shocking scenes. How shocking were they - well at the time I commented show me something new! I was with a number of industry people attending a conference at the time. One a very well respected administrator was heard to utter "OH PLEASE" much to the amusement of the audience.
The script is respectable but it is only a slice of life theatre piece with a few lame tricks.
Though on the other hand. A production in Wagga Wagga was on the cards for this year - somehow lost out to Mamet's "Sexual perversity in Chicago"
Any takers!
Rohan
The script is respectable but it is only a slice of life theatre piece with a few lame tricks.
Though on the other hand. A production in Wagga Wagga was on the cards for this year - somehow lost out to Mamet's "Sexual perversity in Chicago"
Any takers!
Rohan