GORGE '09 - THE ADVERTISER REVIEW

by Patrick McDonald

Until November 21 @ Space Theatre Three new 10-minute plays by different authors are each staged twice on different nights, by six companies.

Authors have no contact with the performers and only see how their works have been interpreted on the night.

Brink Productions has dressed up the concept with comical cabaret by Libby O'Donovan and Matthew Carey, interviews with the writer/performers, and a straight reading of the script.

On Thursday, Venezuelan migrant Alirio Zavarce's Conflict Under an Australian Quilt appeared, on first reading, to be a preposterous sex farce about a couple who discover they are different colours and launch into a racist tirade which questions Aussie values.

Director Dan Clarke found extraordinary comic value by placing the action beneath an enormous patchwork of flags, stars and crosses illuminated in all manner of positions by UV light, then turned the racism issue on its head with unexpected casting.

Choreographer Aidan Munn's interpretation was the polar opposite, finding a natural meter in the dialogue to which his cast performed a twirling, teasing tango, literally dancing around the questions raised. The martial arts moves of his interrogation sequence were more Guantanamo Bay than game show.

Comedy was replaced by irony, with Munn finding a poignancy and subtlety not immediately obvious in the script.

Tonight features Nicki Bloom's Footsoldiers, interpreted by new media group Real Time Collaborators and theatre duo Jo Stone and Paulo Castro.