Highly recommend - A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg. last days!

There have already been a few reviews of this play posted here and unfortunately some of them have diverted distractingly off-topic. But where they each began, gushing enthusiastically about Class Act's current production at the Subiaco Studio, is entirely justified and worth me repeating in this new thread: I thought this was a uniformly strong, engaging production. Fast moving, confronting, funny, touching, and with strong character performances from every player. Knowing this to be a play that apparently sparked huge controversy in the late 60's, I was a little skeptical that it would carry the same weight today in a society that seems hard to shock. I thought I'd have to view it through a historical perspective, as a curiosity. But there's surprisingly little that has dated in the text of the play - perhaps only the blatant racism sets it in a particular era. What was confronting then seems just as confronting now, and the play is stylistically original enough to remain relevant, even while dwelling in the swinging 60's setting of beehives and miniskirts. Peter Clark's performance is a showcase of comic delivery, energetic characterisation and disturbing pathos. Often times reminiscent of Monty Python - but I say this as a compliment, because it IS Britain in 1967, and his character's subversive sense of humour is completely Pythonesque as he acts out a schizophrenic range of fantasy characters dealing with taboo subject matter from a twisted perspective. I have long known Shirley Van Sanden to be capable of manic, extreme, larger-than-life comic characters (as well as a propensity for cringe-worthy puns!). This was a perfect role for her to be able to present that full-tilt comic style, yet packaged in a well-grounded, fully dimensional character. The hysteria was still over the top, but was at the same time completely real, and throughout the play her comedy never overshadowed the depth of feeling that was always present. While we can be shocked and appalled by the cruel and sick humour of these two, we still LIKE them as characters, and when things fall apart, we feel their pain. Similarly, the characters played by Angelique Malcolm, Grant Watson and Claire Munday were terrific balances of cringeworthy caricature played for truth and realism. When the farce escalates toward the end of the play, it works because up til then the performances have been restrained, well-observed and played with integrity, not just for laughs. That's probably WHY we laugh. And the direct-to-audience monologue asides gave each a chance to fully develop all facets of their characters - laughable one moment, poignant the next. Stephen Lee's direction delivers a tight, focussed comedy with many subtle layers to observe. It's not a short play and I was tired, but I was never allowed to get restless. All the elements came together, and the cast were particularly unified in their comic timing and interaction. The only unfortunate touch for me was the odd choice of graphic on their poster/flyers. I was not really enticed to see the show from the cheesy image of the young clown in the wheelchair...in fact, it discouraged me. It wasn't until I was encouraged by the snowballing word of mouth that I decided to check it out anyway. It turns out the image doesn't actually appear in the show. In retrospect there was probably some relevance, as the play contains a lot of black humour, farce, and full-on buffoonery...but it does a real disservice to Melissa Kiiveri's performance which was a beautifully delivered and focussed physicalisation that served as the real heart of the play. Often relegated to the background rather than taking centrestage (the thematic point of the story) she was nevertheless always watchable and disturbingly natural. A dedicated performance, tackling a demanding role with impressive endurance. Really well done. There are only 3 more shows to catch - one Friday and two Saturday. Bookings are light, so I really do encourage you to make the effort to support this production. It's well-deserving. Cheers, Craig <8>-/=====\-------