GORGE '09 - GREEN ROOM REVIEW - 3RD DAY

Licked the plate clean!
by Josephine Were

Although everyone had been overindulging for the last two nights, the glorious Libby O'Donovan, AKA Mistress of Ceremonies, still found room to scull a patron's beer as she kicked off the final night of Brink's Gorge '09. Nikki Bloom's Footsoldiers was the ten minute play on the menu.

Daisy Brown chatted with Nikki about her writing process in her on-the-couch question time. From this we gained insights into  how she visualises her work as a whole kind of landscape with tone and colour. She also spoke about the rhythm and flow of her writing, and how she formed the idea for her script.

Nikki's script was then read by actor's Brendan Rock and Rory Walker, with stage directions by Chris Drummond. It was a male two-hander in a post-apocalyptic setting where they use sneakers for currency. This was followed by an interval of “Oh, I wonder what they'll do!” and “Why is there a thong in the girl's toilets?”.

After interval the Real Time Collaborators were first to reveal their version of Footsoldiers, directed by Tessa Leong with Design by Clare Butler. They intriguingly interpreted the two-handed script using four actors Emma Beech, Craig Behenna, Antje Guenther and Hew Parham. The speaking roles were cross-cast to be played be Emma and Antje, with Hew and Craig as Emma's silent, but physically very loud, side-kicks. This added a whole other layer to the hierarchy that Nikki had first laid out in her script. Their set was very striking. Constructed with newspaper, it was eventually ripped down to reveal 300+ pairs of black and white thongs piled up. That would explain the thongs in the girls toilets and foyer of The Space!

Next up Ben Frost's violently erratic soundtrack shook us into Stone/Castro's boldly contrasting interpretation of Footsoldiers. Directed by Paulo Castro with assistance by Jo Stone, this piece was full of powerful gestures and images. Actors Merwan Stevens and Nick Bennet performed superbly. Full of anxiety and desperation, they captured a sense of war and painted a vivid picture of what was beyond their dwelling place. The set was simply a large red rectangular cloth that spread over the floor, a gun and pair of sneakers. Later in the forum we found out that Paulo had already had the concept for the piece in his mind before even reading the script.

The final night of Gorge '09 ended with an all-in discussion about the two pieces of theatre. A celebration of the interpretations and the script, with a few discrepancies of “The Rules” of gorging. Mostly though, it was a wonderful feast of ideas and theatre that encouraged conversation.

I wonder what's on the menu next year...