Sweet As…[by Sharu Delilkan]
And so we’re off again for two weeks packed with 10-minute theatre snippets for “the easily distracted”, as advertised in the pre-publicity. It is great to see that Short+Sweet Theatre as a festival is finally become a regular date in the theatregoing public’s calendar. I’ve been personally going to this festival for the past three years and it has indeed been “taking over Auckland ten minutes at a time”.
The best thing about Short+Sweet Theatre is that it features such a wide range of writers, directors and actors, and Week One of the festival is definitely no exception. The subject matter tackled by the writers ranged from Malapropism, Game of Thrones, the same sex marriage bill, The Garden of Eden, the afterlife and most prominently, theatre as a genre. On that final note it was actually interesting to see three out of the 11 short plays on opening night providing audiences a voyeuristic view of how theatre is created – this ranged from an audition, a read through and even the transparency of the actual acting process.
A number of favourites for the evening included Irish Stew, The World’s Worst Fight, Staged Madness and Storming the Castle. The last of which needs to be given due mention mainly because of 13-year-old actor Daniel Sewell, who not only was clearly out past his bedtime but also excelled on stage. Stand out writing for me was Irish Stew dealing with the reality and frustrations of Alzheimer’s/Dementia – a real lesson in “in sickness and in health” giving the audience the warm fuzzies where love prevails against almost impossible odds.
The crowd-pleasing humorous short of Adam and Eve in The World’s Worst Fight was an astutely instinctive observation of the male-female dynamic that may or may not have taken place in The Garden of Eden, and which received a great deal of laugh-out-loud response.
Both Out from Under Mary and Storming the Castle were very nicely executed with both two handers cleverly pitching the characters against each other, both resulting in a successfully interesting ending.
It was great to hear the amazing soundscapes in quite a few of the productions tonight, as well as to see the use of AV projections which was equally effective throughout the evening.
The improved quality of the writing this time round was particularly noticeable, especially if compared to the work staged last year. Besides a lot of witty and intelligent dialogue, there were also clever twists within the storylines that made the audience sit up and take notice.
The concluding show Zooquatic was a lively and ridiculous parody of the Gay Marriage Laws, translated into the animal kingdom with gay abandon and well-timed comedy. However I have to say that the most outstanding piece for me was Staged Madness where actors Kate Vox and Matt Norton were featured in the fourth-wall-blurring investigation of reality between actors and their perceived audience. Cleverly written by Bruce Brown this piece so simply blurred the lines between fantasy and reality, actor and audience – I must admit it is one of the most original concepts that I have seen in a long time – and the fact that it was seamlessly portrayed on stage was a bonus.
Short+Sweet Theatre has to be the ultimate theatrical experience where the audience is assaulted with so much creativity – both good and otherwise – that one can’t help but be dazzled, challenged and inspired. More please…
Short+Sweet Festival Theatre, Week One is presented by Short+Sweet Festival 2013 in association with The Edge and plays at the Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre until 22 June. Details see The Edge .
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