Giving Up the Ghosts

A lone tree looms in the background, its bare limbs sorrowfully mirroring the sad girl on stage. She paces back and forth frustrated, back and forth past the worn car seats that litter the stage. Circling the car, she looks into the distance with wild, manic eyes. The girl checks her watch and shakes her head. The mood of the theatre grows uneasy with her consuming panic as she paces and circles some more.

‘Giving Up the Ghosts’ follows the story of an unlikely pair. After connecting on an internet forum, Ruth and Steve plan to meet a week later, both with their hearts set on the same ill fate. A secluded beaten track, off a quiet country road, is the perfect place to be forgotten.

Ruth, neurotic and still living at home, has never really known happiness, whilst Steve an affable truckie feels lost and hopeless. Based on a real event in the UK where two strangers meet online to commit suicide, this compelling production explores the story of two souls rather than the act itself. What unfolds is a tender and honest depiction of the human heart and how easy it is to break.

Georgia King and Paul Grabovac deliver stand out performances in this dark and brooding new works by emerging talent, Sarah Young. The dialogue is thoughtful yet wry, the intimacy of the Blue Room providing the perfect setting for this provocative piece to unfold.

‘Giving Up the Ghosts’ is showing at the Blue Room until 12 July and is part of the Winter Arts Season. For more info visit the Blue Room Theatre.

Are we alone in the universe?

A wall of transparent plastic looms in the horizon transforming the State Theatre into a quarantine zone. The stage is dotted with balloons of black and white of varying sizes.  Circular and suspended in the air like satellite balloons whilst others are scattered on the ground like peculiar objects, rocks from another planet.   A dull blue light reflects off the black balloons forming opaque alien heads with luminescent eyes.

Alienation is fascinating theatre from the Perth Theatre Company drawn from the curious stories of Australians who claim to have been abducted.  Writer Lachlan Philpott has cleverly entwined real life interviews into witty and convincing dialogue.  Directed by Melissa Cantwell, Alienation stars Luke Hewitt, Naomi Hanbury, Robert Jago and Natalie Holwood.  Firstly introducing themselves to the audience as their true selves, then slipping into the guise of an abductee or non-believer.  All four actors gave charismatic performances seamlessly switching between the actor and the character.

Holfold plays affable Katherine an odd girl with frightened eyes. She shares her first encounter at an abductee help group.  She is only a child, money in hand on the way to the shop for paddle-pops.  Something draws her down an overgrown lane into a yard.  She walks towards the beautiful caged peacocks, their tails glimmering like gems.  Her eyes grow wider as she recalls the birds gurgling as a small otherworldly being appears.  The peacocks stir, feathers moving and he is talking to her, his lips don’t move, yet she can hear his voice.  Katherine looks up to the audience with those sad eyes and asks ‘I am nothing special. I am not pretty. Why would they choose me?’.  You soften, your heart goes out and you ask could this be real?

Then there is the story of Will.  An accountant played by Jago, just a normal guy on his way to his niece’s birthday.  It is a long drive to his sister’s house.  Time ticks on and Will doesn’t arrive.  His phone is off and night falls into morning. Will is stunned the last hours a complete blank.  He then exists in a trance like state left wondering ‘where did that time go?’.  Nothing makes sense until he remembers.  Driving down the highway, the music stopping and that bright white light.   Will attends the help group to find answers. 

Katherine befriends Will, easing him out his shell in a heartwarming manner.  Will is unsure and untrusting whilst Katherine is hilariously persistent, almost borderline stalking him.   This refreshing dance of playful cat and timid mouse with a romance bubbling underneath makes Alienation utterly human.

The story of Brian, played by Hewitt, was disturbing yet truly thought provoking.  Brian is a typical bloke with a stereotypical bogan girlfriend played by Hanbury.  They are doing well, working in a remote area making good money.  Brian wakes up, watch missing with his wrist searing in pain.  He is bewildered and in shock and then he remembers.  He shares this horrifying news with his loved one.  She laughs in his face and brushes it off.  You don’t really blame her as you think how you would handle such news?  

A series of haunting events unfold, as Brian starts to go mad, a static sound taunting him.  Hard screeches of metal punctuate scenes as their relationship is torn apart by his obsession with the supernatural. He is petrified, anger fuelled by the planted seed of paranoia. You can imagine how this would drive someone over the edge with Brian literally frothing from the mouth at breaking point.

Alienation is the journey of what happens after the spaceship.   When all you are left with is the truth as you know it, that is, if you want to remember.  Whether you are a believer or a skeptic or just a little unsure this production will get you thinking, ‘are we alone in the universe?’.  A touching and comic performance of how we adapt during life’s most earth shaking moments.

Alienation is showing as part of the Winter Arts Festival at the State Theatre Centre until 13 July 2013. 

Great White

Da dummm. Imagine you are a young man frolicking with your girlfriend in the ocean one afternoon. You fight, she bites you and in a huff  swims to shore, retreating to the safety of the sand. It is cold, its bleak, some would even call it shark weather.  A drop of blood hits the water and a young girl appears from the darkness below.  She rises and says with a predatory glare ‘I am going to eat you’.  

Great White is a terrifying new play directed by Will O'Mahony bearing the tag line ‘ocean stillness dinner’.  A lot less Jaws, and a lot more thought provoking than its title may suggest.  Great White invites you into the Blue Room Theatre where the stage is a sea of balloons and blow-ups. 

A journey into an ocean of love, fear and life grasping with remorse and lost opportunities.  We follow Ben and not one but two Laurens as they struggle with the tick of time, themselves and each other.  What does it mean to be great?  And what is greatness after all.  Great White makes us stop and think, are you great or are you just dinner?  

The local cast of Adriane Daff, Mikala Westall and Will O’Mahony all gave an outstanding performance taking you from laughter to despair.   Definitely not the kind of carnage you expected.  

Great White will be the show this season that you will wish you had seen. This superb production is showing in the intimate surrounds of The Blue Room Theatre until29 June. This work was made pozible by a wonderful bunch of people who pledged their support.  Pozible is an awesome platform for crowdfunding creative projects such as this.   

‘GREAT WHITE started with a scribble and has grown into something with teeth’ Will O’Mahony.