Psycho Beach Party

Made the trek up to Kalamunda myself the other night...I believe that's the first time I've ever sat in the audience there, although I have been on that stage once or twice.

(I was a bit wary of Kim Wallace throwing stones at me in the audience, but braved it because I figured she'd probably miss me by a few Degrees... )

So in my unqualified but generally opinionated opinion, I quite enjoyed the night, although I tend to agree the script itself isn't as crash hot as I'd have hoped.


The whole American beach party film genre is not so difficult to parody these days...because it was virtually a parody when it originally existed. If we tried to stage one today in total seriousness, it would be seen as a parody.
So the expectations for a comedy ripping off the genre are pretty high. The show works best to meet these expectations when it's taken to full extreme, or exposes the genre for comic effect. So the surfboard riding image works so well, because it's NOT actually sending it up so much as exposing it for how it really was done in those films. The show wouldn't have been complete without such a scene. Same when we went into 'musical' genre, a great scene played for all the right gags.

I wasn't so taken by the "psycho" plot; there was just something a bit unsatisfying about how it was set up and resolved...it was really just a vehicle to pin the characters on and give them things to do. (But then I guess, what was "Beach Blanket Bingo" about, anyway?). It was a little disappointing that the script opens up these opportunities but never really pays off at the end...the two closing scenes are tricky to pull off, because they don't add much. (I was almost scared that Berdine's final speech was the end of the play...you could see what the script was trying to do in the horror genre, but it would have been a very limp ending). Much better that the final goodbye scene (a bit of a standard in the surf genre) occured, although still a bit down because by then everything's been said.

Having said that - I agree that I thought Melissa Merchant was great and I loved the way she took on the different personalities of Chicklet, with very clear physical contrasts. The only thing I felt could be changed was the opening address to the audience...in the style of Sally Field's Gidget talking to camera: in the theatre it seemed odd to be addressing us but looking straight ahead as if to camera. I think it would have worked better to make eye contact and connect with more audience, or to have blocked the scene further upstage to give the impression of being on set in front of a camera.

There was quite a bit of "on camera" acting, which served the soap-opera elements of the parody well, especially for Julia Dalby and 'the Psycho Carol Brady' Jenny McCann. Their 'strike a pose' gestures, as other characters were speaking to them, were classic and well-observed parody. Jenny's scene in act one was very short, but right from her entrance she hit every comic moment and left the audience wanting more. Her personality changes were horrifically funny because they felt really real, and were exactly the side of those 60's TV mothers we really wanted to see.

Adam Shuttleworth and Troy Hall played the 'dopey sidekicks' function of the genre really well, but the parody of having them fully come out was one of the highlights of the script, and they tackled it bravely and for maximum effect.

Tim Edwards and Alex Jones looked like they were relishing their characters and played their parts well. I certainly didn't find anyone 'wooden' (unless it was that guy with the tailfin who just lent against the set all night)...but I don't think the STATUS of the characters was played to the hilt, particularly at the start to distinguish Starcat & Kanaka from YoYo & Provoloney. The hunk needs to play "super hunk" and the cool cat "super cool" to improve upon and parody the original genre. I'd suggest this is probably more to do with body language and moments of physical stillness than anything else.

Kim Wallace and Melanie Gault also portrayed their 'vixen' and 'nerd' stereotypes well. Their subplots weren't developed to the extent I would have hoped either, and this might account for the previous comment about pacing...the play kind of hinted at some actions for these characters that were never followed through, so it kind of came to a halt for them (less so for Melanie). The characters involved in the 'let's make a film' plot had more substance to work with.
As far as delivery, there was a tendency for longer passages of text to be a bit repetitive in style...difficult because the actors were obviously trying to maintain a cliche`d character mode of speech...I just note that this may have also accounted for people thinking Melanie's monologues seemed flat, and the overall feeling that the pacing (which is to do with individual moments, not the overall length of the show) could have been tighter.

Original music was great; the lyrics in the song were a little indistinct but I got the feeling that didn't really matter. And whoever designed the programme obviously had fun too!



Cheers,
Craig

(I go to the beach, and to parties, and I'm a bit psycho, and I was born in the 60's, so ...uh...what was I talking about?)

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