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| “The Snow Angel of Antarctica” 'best play' |
CANBERRA’s
“Short + Sweet” franchise celebrated its 10th birthday this month and on
Saturday (May 4) night I was lucky enough to experience the nine playlets
judged to be the best of this year’s potpourri crop of 10-minute theatrical
snippets.
To judge
from the enthusiastic reception from the full house in the Courtyard Theatre,
the franchise is in good health. For those who, like me, have not encountered
this phenomenon before, “Short + Sweet” is a worldwide operation which began in
Sydney, fostering the enthusiasms of play-lovers, professionals, amateurs, and
community writers and performers in a discrete theatrical form.
You’d
have to be Samuel Beckett to be able to compress a universal profundity into a
script of 10 minutes or less – and who understands Beckett anyway? So the
“Short + Sweet” format lends itself to the comedic end of the dramatic spectrum
without, one would hope, falling into the trap of stand-up exhibitionism.
Thus, few
pieces in the program of locally-written and international scripts went beyond
the funny side of life, into the real difficulties in a relationship. “Virgin”
was the main example of the latter.
More,
like “The Circus Train Wreck”, “A Womb with a View” and “Once Upon a Time”,
ventured into the wild variations of modern fantasy. “Fallout” touched on
issues such as the nuclear cataclysm with “Strangelove” undertones, while
others did not distinguish themselves beyond looking for laughs – which is not
to say that we don’t need a few laughs in today’s fraught world.
With a
company of actors and directors so large, they barely fitted on the stage for
the final curtain call. It would be invidious to single out many that remain in
the memory, but I was impressed with the aplomb of Edith Baggoley and Vivien
Murray at the early end of the age-range, and Lynn Petersen’s bag lady at the
other, as she engaged the audience in a suitably gossipy way about burying
underwear. I was also impressed by Jade Green’s well-conceived “embryo”.
I can’t
argue with the Peoples Choice Award to “Once upon a Time” which, in an
intricate joke on nursery rhymes, managed to avoid the trite.
The
complexity of “The Snow Angel of Antarctica” did not encourage me to support
the “best play” award, although its production values were higher than most.
Nor will I dispute the award of “best direction” for “Virgin”, although the
actors could have been more audible in their more intimate conversations. On
the night, they were not the only actors to lapse into natural volume levels
which did not reach the audience in the third row.
Overall,
the “Short + Sweet Canberra” gala final satisfied its audience and gave many
the opportunity to test themselves without the stress of main stage regular
performance.
The full
list of awards presented at the gala is below:
“Best
Actor”
First:
Amy Crawford
Second:
Tied between Dec Hastings and Marli Haddeill
“Actor
Commendation”
First:
Marli Haddeill
Second:
Matthew Paliaga
Third: Amy
Crawford
“Best
Director”
First:
Rachel Hogan for “Virgin”
Second:
Lynn Petersen for “The Snow Angel of Antarctica”
Third:
Paul Jackson for “Womb With a View”
“Best
Script”
First:“The
Snow Angel of Antarctica” by Vicki Connerty
Second:
Tied between “Fallout” by Greg Gould and “Virgin” by William Orem
“Best
Production”
First:
“The Snow Angel of Antarctica”
Second:
“Womb With a View”
Third:
“Fallout”
“Peoples’
Choice”
First: “Once
Upon a Time”
Second:
“Fallout”
Third: “Timesavers”
This review
first appeared at citynews.com.au on May 6.