Zen's Red Mouth **** 1/2

‘Zen’s Red Mouth’ is a comedy-drama written and directed by Jeffrey Jay Fowler; it is presented in The Blue Room Theatre at 8 pm nightly until 8^th July.

This presentation was originally written as a 15-minute play and later extended to this 80-minute production. My fear was that the result would be a good story spoilt by excess padding, this however was most definitely not the case with ‘Zen’s red mouth’. It was full of skilfully constructed novel and interesting situations.
Another problem that can arise with a writer / director, is that the full depth of the mood in scenes can be lost, as the director makes assumptions of the understanding by the cast. Again Jeffrey Jay overcame this hurdle and obtained quality performances from his talented cast.

This saucy, even bawdy, play relates the happenings, desires and deep secret thoughts of a typical female WAAPA student (?) in the John Travolta ‘70s. The show got off to a good start with a hilarious rewrite of the song ‘Leader of the Pack’.
This beautifully performed comedy continued to pour forth a multitude of short scenes – which flowed together well - covering the highs and lows in the lives of young women.
Sharney Nougher, who played ‘yellow’, fully justified her partial nudity and bravely proved that it was not simply ‘gratuitous’! Natalie Holmwood (Pink) had a chance to prove her wonderful acting skills, with Arielle Gray (blue) being the third talent in this trio.

Fowler’s original music, Steve Warren’s lighting when coupled with the actors’ singing and movement all kept the show bouncing along.

It was a full house when I saw this performance, and for the first time in ages the audience called for an extra curtain call, which was sadly not given. If the audience love you don’t be shy.

Thoroughly recommended.

What a clever little piece of theatre. I went and saw Zens red mouth last night and was thoroughly entertained. It was so refreshing to see a bit of semi-experimental theatre bravely showing its face on Perth Stages. All three actors were very strong vocally but what stood out for me was their physical commitment. I was very impressed mostly by the clever script, the witty musical numbers which tied in nicely with the more serious undertone of a piece. Round of Applause to the writer who executed beautifully an eclectic style of theatre from the perspective of a woman. The use of music throughout the piece held it all together and the simple costuming and stage made the whole show very easy to watch and you focused on the words and actions instead of any extra unnecesary stage decoration. Everyone involved in this piece should be very proud. Thankyou for such a refreshing look at Perth Theatre. :)

What a clever little piece

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