Ordinary Lives - Acorn Theatre
Thu, 16 Feb 2006, 09:40 amWalter Plinge2 posts in thread
Ordinary Lives - Acorn Theatre
Thu, 16 Feb 2006, 09:40 amYes, I confess I took up the free ticket offer. Its Wednesday night, IÂ’m bored, broke and going to the wilds of the southern suburbs for an adventure isnÂ’t so bad. I thought. I got off the train at (1st station after Gosnells) Seaforth, walked the 200 metres (it IS 3 minutes just like the website says!) And I arrived at Acorn Theatre, The smallest theatre in the Southern Hemisphere, formerly the worldÂ’s smallest theatre.
ItÂ’s a shed. An antique fibro shed. I nearly turned around and went home, but then I heard laughter from inside. An elderly Johnny Cash black dressed look alike came out from the double doors and invites me in. Turns out he is the director/writer. We go in, theyÂ’ve got real theatre seats! I am told from His Maj at the last refurbishment. Anyway they are comfy. What disappoints me is that there is, even for the worldÂ’s, sorry, AustraliaÂ’s smallest theatre, a lot of empty seats.
Lights go down and the director/writer of the show makes a few comments, and we are off into the first “playlet” “ Summer of Discontent” The actor (Sam Bax) is already on stage and delivers a very pithy but I thought confusing opening paragraph. The “multi media show starts on a 58cm tv.. geez I think this is boggy, but wow, the DVD is GOOD. Equipment is crap but the concept and editing is very good. The soundtrack is rocky but that is forgivable. The final scene of Sam trapped behind a locked gate gets to me. Even the corny pan to ocean scene works well. Now I’m becoming not so cynical and getting fairly interested.
The TV stops, clumsily handled by the stage manager, but hey itÂ’s preview night, and then Sam Bax raises her head and speaks. After a while I figure out that she is talking to an unseen reporter. It is good dialogue. I am surprised. Political yes, seditious? No. No call to violence. Hard luck thought police. No sale here. The final scene when it turns out she is seeking asylum is absolutelyÂ…No. you go see it. You can buy your tickets!
The second piece ( Sleeping Quietly) began after some disorganised scene shifting, but the lighting guy made amiable and funny comments, so it was all good.. This piece is pure horror It starts off, according to the program, in a magistrate court witness room. Be Farbey does a magnificent job as the stressed out childcare worker. Did I say these are 25 – 30 minute pieces? A big ask for most community theatre actors to sustain in character..
Half way through the story she leaves, having taking a shot at social workers, real estate reps and psychiatrists. She returns. And the story line reveals its true twisted shape only when Be drags the toddler “Suzie” out from the behind the wings and forces sleeping pills down her throat. An absolutely chilling piece of theatre. The minimalist black backdrops add to the horror of this macabre piece. This is well written and well performed traditional theatre. I am now impressed with the talent I have seen at Acorn.
We interval, as there is like 5 in the audience, we socialise and chat. I get the beer to write the review. Sweet.
We take our seats, and , whoa, dude. This voice with a Goth body, complete with multiple piercing erupts from the blackness, hurls a chair across the theatre and starts to tell me her story. Not delivered with the same intensity, but written with as much sensitivity as the previous piece and performed, strongly, by 16 year old Jodie Caple. Yes, by now I am thinking there is more creativity in Gosnells(?) than I would ever credit!
By the end of this piece I was laughing at the pictures that Jodie’s mimicry had brought to my imagination. The bit where all the footy guys shorts were melting around their “bits” got me for sure.
Another “stage hand “dialogue followed while the final set was brought on. Funny and convincing, was it ad lib or for real? I laughed anyway and I realised that this was the director’s ploy to break up the acts. Give our attention spans time to refresh. I like it, it worked. In this tiny intimate space at Acorn, you feel more family than audience anyway, and it seems like we are all in on the joke..
The final monologue, performed by Gail Chadwick, who, the program informs me is President of Acorn, was both hilarious and black despair.. Her characterisations of her son, the nurse and sundry charity workers were wonderful counterpoints to her descent into dementia. The writing was rich and tapestried. The overall performance was one of comic blackness. Although I laughed, although I saw the cruelty of Mrs Munro, I still sympathised with her.
Acorn is not fashionable, it is not large, but it is brave, It has on its program works by three local WA writers this season alone! It is coarse theatre, raw theatre, but, “BY God it IS theatre!”
The sets? none, the venue? a front room, airconditioned, with theatre seats.. Would I go again?, I already booked.
Yes my beer was a six pack. What would I have written for a carton?
Yours, Des ( Patrick) OÂ’Kane
ItÂ’s a shed. An antique fibro shed. I nearly turned around and went home, but then I heard laughter from inside. An elderly Johnny Cash black dressed look alike came out from the double doors and invites me in. Turns out he is the director/writer. We go in, theyÂ’ve got real theatre seats! I am told from His Maj at the last refurbishment. Anyway they are comfy. What disappoints me is that there is, even for the worldÂ’s, sorry, AustraliaÂ’s smallest theatre, a lot of empty seats.
Lights go down and the director/writer of the show makes a few comments, and we are off into the first “playlet” “ Summer of Discontent” The actor (Sam Bax) is already on stage and delivers a very pithy but I thought confusing opening paragraph. The “multi media show starts on a 58cm tv.. geez I think this is boggy, but wow, the DVD is GOOD. Equipment is crap but the concept and editing is very good. The soundtrack is rocky but that is forgivable. The final scene of Sam trapped behind a locked gate gets to me. Even the corny pan to ocean scene works well. Now I’m becoming not so cynical and getting fairly interested.
The TV stops, clumsily handled by the stage manager, but hey itÂ’s preview night, and then Sam Bax raises her head and speaks. After a while I figure out that she is talking to an unseen reporter. It is good dialogue. I am surprised. Political yes, seditious? No. No call to violence. Hard luck thought police. No sale here. The final scene when it turns out she is seeking asylum is absolutelyÂ…No. you go see it. You can buy your tickets!
The second piece ( Sleeping Quietly) began after some disorganised scene shifting, but the lighting guy made amiable and funny comments, so it was all good.. This piece is pure horror It starts off, according to the program, in a magistrate court witness room. Be Farbey does a magnificent job as the stressed out childcare worker. Did I say these are 25 – 30 minute pieces? A big ask for most community theatre actors to sustain in character..
Half way through the story she leaves, having taking a shot at social workers, real estate reps and psychiatrists. She returns. And the story line reveals its true twisted shape only when Be drags the toddler “Suzie” out from the behind the wings and forces sleeping pills down her throat. An absolutely chilling piece of theatre. The minimalist black backdrops add to the horror of this macabre piece. This is well written and well performed traditional theatre. I am now impressed with the talent I have seen at Acorn.
We interval, as there is like 5 in the audience, we socialise and chat. I get the beer to write the review. Sweet.
We take our seats, and , whoa, dude. This voice with a Goth body, complete with multiple piercing erupts from the blackness, hurls a chair across the theatre and starts to tell me her story. Not delivered with the same intensity, but written with as much sensitivity as the previous piece and performed, strongly, by 16 year old Jodie Caple. Yes, by now I am thinking there is more creativity in Gosnells(?) than I would ever credit!
By the end of this piece I was laughing at the pictures that Jodie’s mimicry had brought to my imagination. The bit where all the footy guys shorts were melting around their “bits” got me for sure.
Another “stage hand “dialogue followed while the final set was brought on. Funny and convincing, was it ad lib or for real? I laughed anyway and I realised that this was the director’s ploy to break up the acts. Give our attention spans time to refresh. I like it, it worked. In this tiny intimate space at Acorn, you feel more family than audience anyway, and it seems like we are all in on the joke..
The final monologue, performed by Gail Chadwick, who, the program informs me is President of Acorn, was both hilarious and black despair.. Her characterisations of her son, the nurse and sundry charity workers were wonderful counterpoints to her descent into dementia. The writing was rich and tapestried. The overall performance was one of comic blackness. Although I laughed, although I saw the cruelty of Mrs Munro, I still sympathised with her.
Acorn is not fashionable, it is not large, but it is brave, It has on its program works by three local WA writers this season alone! It is coarse theatre, raw theatre, but, “BY God it IS theatre!”
The sets? none, the venue? a front room, airconditioned, with theatre seats.. Would I go again?, I already booked.
Yes my beer was a six pack. What would I have written for a carton?
Yours, Des ( Patrick) OÂ’Kane
Re: Ordinary Lives - Acorn Theatre
Wed, 22 Feb 2006, 09:14 pmWalter Plinge
Bewdy! What a bonser review!
I and my treasure will certainly make the trip ( from near Freo ) to their next production, be it this smorgasbord style or more stereo-typical ( of most theatres ) a- la- carte.
How refreshing to hear of NEW works---somebody does believe in them ? I have a one-acter which after two years has never been tried, so the very best of British luck to Acorn and the successful writers.
I and my treasure will certainly make the trip ( from near Freo ) to their next production, be it this smorgasbord style or more stereo-typical ( of most theatres ) a- la- carte.
How refreshing to hear of NEW works---somebody does believe in them ? I have a one-acter which after two years has never been tried, so the very best of British luck to Acorn and the successful writers.