Written by Steve
Rodgers
Co-directed by Kate
Champion and Steve Rodgers
Minestrone by
Benedict House
Wine by Royal Hotel
Queanbeyan
Sourdough by Baker’s
Delight Queanbeyan
Presented by Belvoir
and Force Majeure
Q Theatre, Queanbeyan
27-30 August 2014
Review by Len Power
27 August 2014
Here’s
a show with everything – including dinner!
In
a kitchen of what seems to be a takeaway shop, possibly in an Australian
country town, two sisters work side by side preparing food. Their conversations paint a picture of their
lives and memories, not all of it happy or satisfying. Into their lives comes a young Turkish man
looking for work as a kitchen hand.
Cultural collisions between them are amusing at first and we are drawn
into the emotional needs and actions of the characters as the play progresses.
Writer,
Steve Rodgers, and his co-director, Kate Champion, have produced a striking
production which shows some very real people in an Australian setting we can
readily identify with. There is a strong
blend of acting and movement in the direction that is uniquely satisfying. The tasteful design of a love making sequence
in movement and without words is beautiful and especially memorable.
Mel
King as the older sister gives an excellent performance. There is such subtlety in her playing that, by
the end of the show, you know her so well it hurts to think about where her
life is going. Emma Jackson plays the
wilder younger sister with great physicality, emotional strength and excellent
comic timing. Fayssal Bazzi as the young
Turkish man also displays great comic timing as well as a finely controlled intensity
in the later emotional scenes.
The
set design by Anna Tregloan is visually pleasing and clever in its use of kitchen
pots and pans as part of the design.
Martin Langthorne’s lighting design complements the set very well and is
especially striking when lighting changes cause the polished bases of the pots on
the wall to change colour and create a different mood. Music composed by Ekrem Mülayim is subtle and
adds greatly to the atmosphere.
What
could have just been a gimmick – the cast serving food to the audience at one
point – actually works very well. It’s
not just the lucky few down the front who get fed. The cast nimbly work their way around the whole
theatre offering lots of cups of minestrone, bread and red wine. Their ad libs during this sequence were well
chosen and delightfully funny. It’s a
real skill to be able to do something like this and stay in character
throughout.
The
play presents very real people in real situations, some of it funny, some of it
bleak and unsettling. It certainly
presents a slice of Australian life that is not flattering. The language is raw but not inappropriate for
the characters portrayed. This might be
one of the most memorable plays I’ve seen this year.