Short Worx

‘Short Worx’ is a set of three monologues written by the award winning writer from Fremantle, Kerry Bowden. This presentation by The Strawboat Collective appeared at the Black Box Theatre, Upstairs at Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, 1 Short Street, Fremantle. The one-hour performances ran until the 4^th November.

Kerry Bowden has written some wonderful short pieces over the years, and has been a finalist in the prestigious Maj Monologues Competition on a couple of occasions. All of her stories are deeply personal studies and inevitably have a surprise, fresh twist at the end.

Recently, Kerry’s work won an award at the Edmonton Festival in Canada.

All of these short pieces have been written and directed by Kerry Bowden.

White Bread performed by Sascha Bragaglia.

          After a breakup with her partner, Louise is feeling flat and in need of something new in her life. She decides to improve her fitness and body shape, and so turns to a lifestyle coach, Samuel.
          It isn’t long before Samuel is tuning-up her mind as well as her body.

Sascha was an inspired choice of actor for this piece. Her accomplished choreography skills made the story come to life. The pace was a little too fast, but Sascha managed to hold the audience enthralled.  Good fun.

This was a tale with which many in the audience could connect and understand.

Swings and Slides performed by Melissa Morrison

         Mrs West is a mum, faced with the dreaded task of going to a school Parents’ Night to discuss her daughter’s successes and failings. When the euphoric, pedantic English teacher, who is a smiling non-listener, greets her, then the poor mother becomes frustrated – very frustrated.

Every parent has been here, and knows the irritation from the lack of communication; often to be left wondering, is this teacher really talking about my child?

An unusually poignant story that was beautifully written and performed. Melissa had, on numerous occasions, to change characters rapidly from the angry mother to an insensitive teacher. Melissa was flawless in changing personalities, but again a little too fast in delivery. Most enjoyable.

Handy Man performed by Grace Orifici, this solo piece was a finalist at the Maj Monologues a year or two ago.

        On a visit to Bunnings, our do-it-yourself housewife found that muscular Simon really put the Buns in Bunnings. This assistant couldn’t be more helpful, he even offered to go around to her home and help her out. However, was he always this obliging?

A hilarious story that really had the audience in stitches. Certainly a little blue in content, but delivered in an inoffensive and acceptable manner. Grace’s style and delivery was excellent.

This collection was rated R18+, but although verbally (or in this case orally) sexually descriptive, I think today an M15 rating would be more appropriate.

I always admire actors that tackle monologues, the amount of lines to learn and perform without having any prompts from other actors. However, the hardest parts a monologue and the points that seems to let performers down most often, are the pace and manner of delivery. Usually the story needs be told in a person-to-person style, as though you are talking quietly to a good friend about a delicate secret. The pace should be slower than normal and perhaps delivered in a whispering, lower timbre. Grace’s delivery was excellent and captured the audience’s interest and held it throughout. The first two, although admirable, weren’t quite so engaging.

Good fun, well up to Kerry’s high standard of story and discourse.