Written by Queenie van de Zandt and Tiffany Noack.
Directed by Priscilla Jackman. Musical director Robyn Womersley. Canberra
Theatre. Canberra Theatre Centre. July 8-11.
Middle Raged is boisterous, insightful and just plain fun as it barrels its way through the perils of an age in women’s lives that used to be spoken about in whispers, if at all.
It’s a mixture of sketches, narrative and some powerful singing, especially from Queenie van de Zandt and Zuleika Khan. They and Carita Farrer Spencer and Valerie Bader combine to share some sharp observations on the particular knowledge of what time does to a woman, something that history has often been at pains to repress or ignore or misunderstand.
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| Queenie van de Zandt, Valerie Bader, Zuleika Khan and Carita Farrer Spencer |
A somewhat delightfully truculent band up the back (Robyn Womersley, Sandy Klose and Jillian O’Dowd) pushes things along musically.
The stories and jokes are pulled out of research which asked women to send in their experiences of mid life and menopause. Projected quotations and cartoonist Kaz Cooke’s quirky cartoon figures turn up on the set (design by Isabel Hudson) which is happily reminiscent of an old fashioned women’s TV programme and which is lit cheerfully and appropriately by Trudy Dalgleish.
It’s not altogether clear what seedy male sports commentators Mark (Khan) and Brian (Bader) are doing there but the actors have some fun with the stereotypes.
The audience response to the show is predominately about taking joy in middle aged female experience becoming visible.
Middle Raged doesn’t dig too deep but it does speak out loud. It’s celebratory, rather than analytical, but it ought to provoke thought.
Alanna Maclean
