By Jonathan Biggins. Hunters Hill Theatre Company. Director: Jasper Kyle. Club Ryde. 9-25 September, 2022.

Reviewed : September 18, 2022.

Hunters Hill’s production of Australia Day waited patiently during two years of restrictions to make its funny and irreverent appearance in this 2022 season. Funny because of playwright Jonathan Biggins’ ability to satirise everyday characters and situations; irreverent because his satire is, in the words of director Jasper Kyle, “highly provocative” – as satire usually is! In the well-known Wharf Revue, Biggins and his co-writers Drew Forsythe and Phil Scott lampoon politics and politicians, local and international. In Australia Day, the satire is more local, more personal and more telling.

Biggins sets his play in the imaginary town of Coriole. On a succession of monthly meetings six members of the local Australia Day Committee congregate in the Scout Hall to organise the annual Australia Day celebrations. The characters they represent might be found in any “committee’ or organisation anywhere – people who want to be involved for various reasons – not always altruistic! In this case there is an aspiring politician, a representative from the CWA, a green feminist, a redneck denialist and a token ‘new’ Australian.

As they inter-act, they provide what Kyle describes as “a wonderful mix of clashing progressive versus conservative ideologies”. Most members are happy for the event to stay the same – a parade, a concert featuring the school choir and local dance group, the introduction of new citizens and a sausage sizzle. The new, younger members are prepared to question and suggest some changes.

The chair of the committee is Brian, the local mayor, played by Martin Maling. Owner of the local hardware shop, Brian is seeking pre-selection for federal politics – and worried about an application by Bunnings to build locally. Maling plays Brian as arrogant, self-righteous, easily flustered and easily angered, turning often for support to the secretary of the Committee and fellow councilor Robert, played by Ross Alexander.

Robert is a much calmer person and Alexander shows this in his patient listening to opposing views and attempts to keep the peace. He listens a lot, shakes his head often, and intervenes when he thinks things are getting out of hand. He is a distinct contrast to Wally, the local plumber who is aggressively anti-everything: global warming, conservation, smoking ceremonies, migration. Wally is the ‘cringe’ character in Biggins’ play and Alan Long enjoys every moment of playing this ‘shock jock’ style character.

The two female characters are also poles apart. Maree is a stalwart of the CWA and comes to meetings equipped with her cross stitch and knitting. Renee Simon, in her debut on the stage, uses bustle and fussiness to accentuate Maree’s character when things get a little confusing, especially if it’s anything to do with new technology.

Helen, played by Cee Egan, is a single mother, a feminist and a Greenie, who bristles about anything that might appear to be racist or discriminative – including the sausage sizzle! Egan uses the feistiness of this character to try to push the pace of the production. She listens carefully and uses gesture and expression effectively to show her exasperation – and her deviousness when an opportunity arises to further her political ambition.

The new representative from the local school is Chester, a first generation Australian – Sri Lankan. Chester sees himself as a bit of joker, and Kirit Chaudhary makes the most of the quips and one-liners Biggins has given this character.

Kyle and his cast find the humour of the second act where everything that can possibly go wrong does! A bushfire, food poisoning, blocked portaloos, a little bit of bribery, a thunderstorm, and the arrival of a past prime minister!

This is a play that uses satirical humour to question what Jasper Kyle describes as the “uglier side of ourselves that we try to ignore and keep hidden”. By lampooning those  characteristics, Biggins, Kyle and his cast bring them out of hiding and make us think about them carefully.

Also published in Stage Whisper magazine

By Pelle Koppel, adapted from the novel by Janne Teller. National Theatre of Parramatta. Director Erin Taylor. Riverside Theatre. 1 – 10 September, 2022

Reviewed : 3 September, 2022*

Young actors Alyona Popova and Joseph Raboy shine in this un-nerving Danish play about teenagers who want to be taken seriously. Teenagers searching for meaning in a world that doesn’t … won’t… can’t … answer their questions about the meaning of life. Their world has gone beyond the supercilious “42” that Douglas Adams suggested in Life, the Universe and Everything. Their world is far more insecure, and Pelle Koppel surmised that if they had to find answers for themselves, they might find discover things that are even more disturbing.

This is Popova’s first professional production since graduating from NIDA. Raboy is more experienced. Both face, in this play, a situation that must have been even more confronting for them than it is for the audience. They tell the story of twenty children trying to convince one of their friends that there is more to life than the “Nothing” he preaches from the branches of an old plum tree. As they search to present him with things that “mean something” to each of them, they sacrifice things that are far more precious than a soft toy.

It is not an easy story to tell. It becomes more and more disturbing as the sacrifices become more personal, more life-threatening. Both performers carry the descriptions of the challenges the teenagers face with poignant, realistic storytelling.  Under the fine direction of Erin Taylor, they become evocative, teenage narrators trying desperately to explain why they have collected a pile of precious and gory objects in an abandoned windmill. Their expressive voices pick up the many faces of fear – bewilderment, bravado, distress, panic – as they describe how each child reacts as they are asked to give up the thing they hold most dear.

There is an almost breathless hush in the audience as the sacrifices become more threatening. Could this happen? Would children, under duress, go this far?

“It is challenging and unnerving,” Erin Taylor suggests, “but if we do not share the search for meaning with young people, they will certainly search for it in our absence.”

Designer Kelsey Lee has converted the Lennox Theatre stage space into a corner of the windmill. A raked floor is surrounded by dilapidated grey slate walls, where light filters through broken spaces. Surrounded by this lowering greyness, Popova and Raboy move easily in the steps of the children they describe, sitting, kneeling, running – or becoming a crumbling crucifix lit from high above the stage.

Lighting designer Kate Baldwin and sound designer Aimée Falzon have created an atmosphere that moves from the brightness of a summer playground to the dim recesses of a village church … and eerie shadowy sounds that follow the children into their growing desperation.

With Lee, they have created an open but enclosing space where Taylor can develop the tension that is inherent to the children’s story. Her direction of Koppel’s adaptation is deft and perceptive, sensitive to the challenges she is asking of her cast – and the anxious children they depict.

As she says: “They are Greta Thunberg screaming in the face of Trump”.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening night

By Charlotte Brontë. Adapted by Nellie Lee and Nick Skubij. shake and stir theatre company – on Tour. Riverside Theatre Parramatta. 31 Aug – 1 Sept, 2022

Reviewed : 31 August, 2022*

shake and stir’s adaptations are always thrilling, always respectful! They stick to the story. The characters are true to their creator. The set and lighting are just as atmospheric as the written descriptions. Seldom are adaptations so faithful to the original. But shake and stir have assembled a formidable ensemble to create their adaptations.

Writers Nellie Lee and Nick Skubij team up again to re-imagine Charlotte Brontë’s late 19^th century novel in a play that omits neither the rejection and poverty of Jane Eyre’s sad childhood, the romance and tragedy of her later adventures nor the places and characters that populate her life. Firstly, Gateshead Hall where she is bullied by her wicked aunt Sarah Reed and her nasty cousin John and locked in the ‘red room’ where she thinks she sees the ghost of her dead uncle. Then Lowood Institution, the gloomy orphanage run by Mr Brocklehurst where Jane endures eight long years. Finally, the gothic grandeur of Thornfield Hall, where Jane meets the gentle Mrs Fairfax, the moody Mr Rochester, his French ward Adele and eventually his mad first wife, Bertha Mason.

That they do so in a production that requires only four actors is a rare feat.

Enter director Michael Futcher, who deftly blocks the production so that changes in character are clearly defined by accent, stance or the addition of a small item of costume. Futcher respects the talent and training of his cast and their commitment to work with him to re-create  Brontë’s characters. He also respects the intelligence of his audience! He knows they will follow when a freeze or a brief lighting snap changes a scene effectively – especially on a set that is designed to accommodate a range of spaces and levels.

Josh McIntosh’s versatile grey, gothic set becomes the dreaded places where Jane lives her early life – and the melancholy grandeur of Thornfield Hall. Muti-levels reached by dim stairways are draped and framed by long grey curtains that shiver eerily in whispery breezes. Sarah McLeod’s original, gothic-sounding compositions echo as she sings at a piano and almost hidden in the shadowy curves, accentuated by Jason Glenwright’s moody lighting and the sounds of sudden storms or teeming rain created by Guy Webster. In this production Michael Steer the adds fiery stage effects that are so essential to Brontë’s macabre tale.

Four actors – Julian Garner, Nellie Lee, Jodie Le Vesconte and Sarah McLeod – and three swings – Maddison Burridge, Hilary Harrison and Nick James – people McIntosh’s dark stage. Together they are taking the production to 39 venues across the country. They play over thirteen characters in a production that sees them dressed in drab grey lifted only by two touches of dull red, a beige cravat, a plain white wedding dress and a flimsy veil. Geared to accommodate the ubiquitous threat of Covid, each of the swings is ready to step in and take over at any time – and they do, seamlessly. That well does this ensemble and their crew work together.

In their publicity notes shake and stir suggest that “Never has the story of this fiercely passionate young woman on a voyage of self-discovery been more timely. In the wake of #metoo, women all over the world have rediscovered their voice and spoken up – demanding that which should have always been theirs”  … just as Jane did!

Jane Eyre is regarded as one as one of the original feminist works. Jane’s honesty and integrity shines through in this production – as does her compassion as she saves Rochester from a fire, champions his vicious, mad, incarcerated wife … and returns to marry him after the horrific fire that blazes through McIntosh’s set, sending Bertha Mason falling to her death and leaving Rochester maimed and sightless.

This production will be remembered in images of high grey scaffold-like levels, shadows and flickering flames and a heartless society based on rigid beliefs and cruel classism. And images of a courageous young woman determined to stay true to herself.

Seeing this production will benefit students studying both English and Drama. The former will be able to compare and contrast the text and the adaptation. The latter will see a variety of theatrical styles from Gothic Theatre to Magical Realism. They’ll see fine characterisation and ensemble acting – and just how creative multi-discipline theatre can be.

Check shake and stir’s website touring dates and venues.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening night

Factory Theatre, Marrickville. Monday 29 August, 2022

Reviewed : 29 August, 2022

After six weeks of impressive impro and competitive comedy, six teams met for the Cagefight finale! A chance to improvise brilliantly enough to win over the audience – and a cheque for $2,000.  So great had the following for the competing teams grown, that organiser Dave Crisante had to move the event from the cosy cheeriness of the Chippendale Hotel to the cavernous capacity of the Factory Theatre. Undeterred by rain, the audience – friends and family; young, older and very old! – filtered up the Factory steps, drinks and phones in hand, to cheer on their favourite team.

Those phones would be essential because, realising the crowd would be far too big to use the subjective method of applause to decide the winner of each heat, Crisante and his helpers had a fairer alternative. Why risk subjectivity when you can resort to electronic voting? And very few of those in the audience would be without a smart phone! Hence, on each seat was a small program with team names on the front and a series of QR Codes inside. One of these would be activated briefly each time a vote was required. How’s that! Performing arts  and technology working together again!

The players in the final six teams were a mixture of seasoned improvisors and new recruits to the art. All were infused with the important ingredients for improvisation: courage, quick thinking, going with the flow and enthusiasm.

They ‘played off’ over two heats. Each team was given 12 minutes to strut their stuff. The first heat saw “Impro (Taylor’s Version)”, “The Queen’s New Boyfriend” and “Uno Reverse” battle the round out in a frenzy of locations, events and characters, most suggested by the audience.

Despite some fierce competition, “The Queen’s New Boyfriend” topped the electronic score with their six-person team creating a scenario where Mum and Dad channel jumped between a series of TV programs from Soap Opera to British Crime. They were all totally involved, changing characters quickly, taking up offers in a flash and keeping things moving and coherent.

The second heat involved “Flight Mode”, “Fillow Talk” and “The Cream Team”. “Flight Mode” took on the challenge of performing in ‘a rock and a hard place’, using written confessions collected from the audience. “Fillow Talk” used their previously successful idea of trying to act out a phrase from a song spoken in Fillipino. “The Cream Team”, battling with the unlikely topics of ice cubes and Lord of the Rings, was successful.

The two winning teams then pulled out the very best of their impro skills in a battle to the end. Both received thunderous applause from the very supportive crowd – but the electronic ballot gave the $2000 to “The Cream Team” – Reuben Ward, Josh Magee and Tom Cardy (who some of you may have seen recently on Spicks and Specks).

This was a big night for all of the performers, and for Crisante and his team who cover all the behind-the-scenes organisation that makes these events work. Over 160 performers have been involved in the weekly heats leading up to the final. They’ve honed their impro skills, developed their team’s expertise and become part of the ‘buzz’ that is Impro Comedy Cagefight.

Dave Crisante’s Monday night classes and comedy impro heats, and his Thursday night communication course at ‘The Chippo’ have proved an exciting addition to the Sydney Impro scene.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

Also, see Carol’s review of Heat 3.

The New Production. By Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. Opera Australia and The Really Useful Company, in association with Cameron Mackintosh. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Opened 26th August, 2022.

Reviewed : 26 August, 2022*

In the bowels of the Paris Opera House, this ‘new’ Phantom hides away in a lush but dark world where flickering candles in gold candelabras cast shadows around an ancient keyboard, a strange music box and the few pieces of furniture he has collected to warm his lonely life. What a contrast it is to the colourful, lively world of the operas that are performed above him!

“Phantom” is a story of contrasts: dark versus light, despair and vengeance versus optimism and joy. In his new take on The Phantom accentuates that contrast. The dark is even more gloomy and melancholy – the light even brighter and more carefree.

Earlier this year Sydney audiences watched the incredible spectacle of a brilliant production of “Phantom” in front of a backdrop of a shining, rain-cleansed harbour. Audiences in theatres all over the world have marvelled at music and gasped at the falling chandelier, the boat, the pyrotechnics.

In this re-imagined production, audiences are creatively transported into the Paris Opera House in the early 1900s and the stage of a colourful production of Hannibal. They are led along a labyrinth of dark, backstage passages and a precarious stairway into the deep despair of Erik’s desolation. The music in all its splendour, still sparkles with the chandelier, just as it has sparkled for the past 36 years, but in this production the setting is makes it seem closer, more immersive.

Cameron Mackintosh’s idea of contrasting “the Phantom’s darker backstage world with that of the traditional opera world onstage” has been realised by the incredible imagination of opera designer Paul Brown, who went back to the score, the libretto and Gaston Leroux’s original 1912 novel for inspiration. His research led him to create a “world of contrasts” that resulted in “dirty crumbling backstage corridors in counterpoint to the grand opulence of the gold proscenium. The real textures of bricks and pipes in conflict with the painted scenery of palm trees” and a Phantom’s lair that “became a magpie’s nest of stolen objects”.

Some might say that between them Mackintosh and Brown have transformed The Phantom from a musical into an opera! It has always had the feel of an opera. The macabre theme. The evocative music. The operatic characters. The little bits of comedy. The sad ending. Paul Brown’s new set – and Maria Bjornson’s original and still exquisite costumes – add the “opera” that is promised in the title.

The staging of “Phantom” has always been problematic for directors – the chandelier, the water, the boat – but 36 years of technological development means Brown’s haunting design ideas are stunningly achievable. The cast of Hannibal disperse as the stage evolves to become the high brick wall of the Paris Opera House where Erik leads a reluctant Christine down steps that miraculously slide out from the bricks, then disappear back into the brickwork as they reach the bottom and the boat that will take them across the misty waters of the lagoon. Smoothly walls open to reveal the ominous shadows of Erik’s lair.

Accentuated by height and the variable juxtapositions of lights and projections, every scene becomes more atmospheric, more real, and more immersive. Add the music, the singing, the acting, the dancing and the colour and glitter of the costumes, this production has lots of everything – probably summed up in the brilliance of “Masquerade”, which has it all!

Josh Piterman cements his critical acclaim as The Phantom in the London production in 2019. Singer and actor, he finds the loneliness and longing of this sad recluse. In “The Music of the Night” that sadness rises powerfully up and beyond the stage. There is the strength of determination mixed with the weakness of humiliation in Piterman’s Erik, a man covering rejection with music and the yearning for love and acceptance.

Australian-American Amy Manford also reprises her London and Athens performances as Christine. The clarity and power of her voice captures the imagination of the audience – as well as the hearts of Erik – and Raoul. She moves from hopeful singing pupil to diva, to lover and to anguished captive with elegant ease and emotion.

Blake Bowden plays Raoul with similar elegance and emotion. He brings a wealth of stage and screen experience to this role, finding the passion of both the music and the ardour with which Raoul defends Christine.

Giuseppina Greech is appealingly funny, charming the audience with her beautiful voice and her petulant depiction of the up-staged Carlotta. Paul Tabone plays the huffy Ublado Piangi whose Hannibal is so disastrously ruined by a falling sandbag and Carlotta’s stormy exit from the stage. Tabone is no stranger to this role, having played it in over 1600 performances in London, and he does so with comic panache.

David Whitney and Andy Morton show a different kind of panache as opera mangers Messieurs Firmin and André. Their comic timing and characterisation are indicative of their experience in opera, musical theatre and stage.

Jayde Westaby is the gracious but strict dance ballet mistress, Mme Giry. Mietta White plays her young daughter Meg, who introduces her friend Christine to Firmin and André as a replacement for Carlotta. It is her suggestion that starts the tangled plot. Rauol hears her and falls in love – and Erik realises that he is losing her.

Director Seth Sklar-Heyn brings these impressive performers together in a powerful production that is almost overwhelming.

This is a production that anyone who hasn’t been to the opera before will love – and those who have loved The Phantom will love just as much. The Phantom on the harbour was spectacular – the ‘new’ Phantom in the Opera House is beyond spectacular!

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

Enmore Theatre. 21st August, 2022

Reviewed : 21 August, 2022

The best yet? If not, it’s certainly in the running! With host Andrew Denton in sparkling red sequinned tails, co-host Josie O’Reilly in glittering gold and black and Music Man Benny Davis in shining silver, this annual theatrical treat was everything a charity impro event should be. The hosts were hyped, the teams were primed – and as usual the audience, warmed up by the inimitable Ewan Campbell, was ready for anything.

But the hype wasn’t just about improvisation.

This annual Sunday afternoon event is part of Theatresports and the Enmore Theatre’s ongoing commitment to Canteen, the wonderful organisation that supports young people “when cancer turns their lives upside down”. Ticket sales, a raffle, an online auction and donations from this event give a major boost to the wonderful organisation that means so much to so many kids and their families.

All those who take part in Celebrity Theatresports do so for love, and there was a great deal of love in the Enmore last Sunday afternoon. It shone from the faces of all the Enmore staff and Canteen volunteers selling raffle tickets. It shone from the heart of young Canteen Ambassador Josh Bell, who spoke so impressively of how important Canteen has been to him and so many other young people. It shone in the tears of the audience when Lily Knowles explained, heart-breakingly, about Canteen’s support in the recent loss of her mother. And when her father, Theatresports veteran John Knowles, left his team on stage to comfort his brave daughter.

Love also shone in the faces of the six Celebrity teams as they hit the competitive stage with their impressive impro talents. Judged by the Grande Dame of Impro, Lyn Pierse, with Play School’s Benita Collings and oncologist Dr Liz Hovey, and using some traditional Theatresports games, they showed the audience just what can be achieved when you … offer, listen, accept, extend … and add a bit of conflict, tension, tempo, pace and fun. Especially when it’s done by the experts!

One team was challenged to perform without the actors’ feet touching the floor. As the team members were carried around the stage by other teams things became more and more hilarious – and precarious! Andrew Denton, too, saw a precarious moment in the final game when Adam Spencer carried him a little too close to the edge of the stage in an underwater extravaganza! Virginia Gay and Rove McManus proved their impro prowess in several games, Gay impressively in an Opera challenge – and McManus becoming increasingly expressive as a garbage collector in an Emotional Replay.

Audio Celebrity Challenges were ‘piped’ in from David Collins (of the Umbilical Brothers), Jay Laga’aia (from back stage at The Eternity Theatre’s production of Once) and  Sam Simmons from UK TV’s 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Live Celebrity Challenges – Benita Collings and journalists Jane Hutcheon and Jennifer Byrne.

Competition was stiff, but there had to be a winning team, and that was “Fun Lovers” – Gep Blake, Veronica Milson, Jane Simmons, Rove McManus and David Callan – who lost only one point! What a triumph!

Congratulation to them, to all the other teams and to the host of people who make the event happen. It’s a highlight of the year for all those who perform in and love impro. And it’s always great to see so many of Impro Australia’s ‘impresarios’ back on the stage supporting a charity that means so much to so many.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

By Nick Payne. Lane Cove Theatre Company. Director Isaac Downey. The Performance Space @ St Aidan’s. 19-28 August, 2022

Reviewed : 19 August, 2022*

Nick Payne’s award-winning play Constellations is based on the possibility that there are multiple universes that can “pull people’s lives in different directions”. Or, that, as his character Marianne, a physicist, suggests: “several outcomes can coexist simultaneously” where “the decisions we do and don’t make will determine which of these futures we actually end up experiencing.”

People often wonder what would have happened if … they made another decision … chosen a different path … bitten their tongue before a harsh retort …

In Constellation,s Payne’s characters, Marianne (Caitlyn Cabrié) and Roland (Tommy James Green), get to experience some “what ifs” as they re-enact scenes where the use of different reactions and different inferences can lead to very different outcomes.

If the whole premise sounds confusing, Payne’s clever writing, and the warm understanding implied in his words, ensure that, once the first scene has been played and re-enacted – and re-enacted again – his hypothesis is clear, and with it the possibility of multiple solutions.

Isaac Downey’s astute direction adds to that clarity. His simple set ensures the concentration is on the actors and their different interpretations of the dialogue. Brief light and sound ‘clicks’ define the many scene changes or replays. The actors slip forward and back in time just as quickly.

None of that can be achieved without a carefully planned vision – and long hours of rehearsal. Green and Cabrié have only seconds to change the whole tenor of a scene and the nature of the character, or to take those characters into the possible ‘futures’ of their relationship.

Downey has guided them through those possibilities with a sure hand so that the different interpretations of their characters are clear and “can coexist simultaneously”. Precision timing is essential. Every replay of a scene means a change of pace and emotion. Every move from past to present to future means a change of place as well as time. It is not an easy play to direct or perform – but Downey and his cast are ‘doing it proud’.

Cabrié’s Marianne moves from speculative scientist to happy lover to cheating or cheated partner in a kaleidoscope of emotional expressions and reactions. In one scene she describes the intricacies of her work in cosmology as if teetering on a balance beam. In another she teeters just as precariously as she approaches, through speech affected by a brain tumour, the possibility of assisted suicide. It’s not an easy role, but Cabrié is finding the multiple dimensions of the many Mariannes effectively.

Tommy James Green brings the experience of stage, screen and improvised performance to his portrayal of Roland. His use of pause and facial expression extend and give depth to the different “Rolands” he depicts. Whether it be the nonchalant barbecue guest, the anxious ballroom dancer, the surprised cheated lover or the querulous husband, Green finds the right stance and expression and pace to portray them clearly.

Isaac Downey couldn’t have guessed when he decided to pitch Constellations for the 2022 season that the James Webb satellite would have scientists all over the world surmising anew about the origins of celestial bodies and even perhaps life itself! It makes Payne’s ‘surmise’ about “multiple universes” seem not quite so unreasonable.

By Liliana Padilla. Outhouse Theatre and Red Line Productions. Director Claudia Barrie. Old Fitz Theatre. 13 August – 3 September, 2022.

Reviewed : 13 August, 2022*

It’s an opportune time for Sydney to see Liliana Padilla’s Yale Drama Prize-winning play about issues of desire, consent, power, toxic masculinity, sexual assault and rape – and whether training in self-defence can ensure anyone’s safety. It centres on the aftermath of gang rape and assault of a young college student by two male students. It deals with the fear of her fellow students, their guilt, their damaged self-esteem – and their faith in self- defence training.

Padilla sets her play on a college campus in America. But it could be any campus. In fact it could be any school, any party, any back alley, even a government office … as Grace Tame, Chantelle Contos, Saxon Mullins, Brittany Higgins have revealed. The play calls out the need for change and the failure of society to attack the root causes of such violence.

With the new NSW affirmative consent laws in operation since 1st June this year, it’s an opportune time for Outhouse, Red Line and Claudia Barrie to premiere this gutsy play.

Padilla’s writing is stark and direct – and Barrie ensures her production is as punchy and provocative as Padilla’s pen. Neither writer nor director allows the implications of this play to be anything but clear and confrontational.

Barrie is a strong director, and she demands similar strength and conviction from her cast. Strength to sustain the work outs, routines and pace that their ‘self-defence’ classes demand. Conviction because the characters they play are raw, angry, afraid … yet eager and enthusiastic, taking their first independent steps in a world away from the safety of home. Barrie’s cast realise all of this in a production that is fast, punchy and visceral.

They perform on an austere, antiseptic set designed by Soham Apte to emphasise the sterility of the gymnasium. Grey brick walls and floor, a bench, some shelves, an exercise barre. A perfect space where lighting designer Saint Claire can throw vivid blues, mauves and reds to accentuate the rollercoaster of emotions the characters face – and the changing pace with which they face them.

All seven actors sustain that pace. All seven make their characters unambiguously real. Their different reactions to the rape are reflected in their faces, the way they relate, react, and retreat.

Brittany Santariga is Brandi, the self-defence instructor, seemingly confident but covering the guilt of failing to protect her friend. Santariga shows this in a taut control that is betrayed in her eyes and her recognition of the fear and vulnerability of others – especially her friend Kara, played by Jessica Spies.

Kara is a disturbed young woman who covers her weakness with over-confidence and brashness. Spies epitomises all of that, especially in one graphic description that rings so clearly to the audience of the hurt and suffering she really feels.

Georgia Anderson and Madeline Marie Dona play Diana and Mojdeh, friends who have joined the class together.

Diana is a Mexican who has had to fight her way against classism and racism. Dona makes her strong, lithe, watchful, quick to take offence – but ready to help, console. Not once does she lose her accent, nor the feistiness that she injects into this character.

Mojdeh is almost her opposite. She is softer, naïve, anxious to find love – and lose her virginity – but also a little scared. Anderson makes all of this clear, in her trust and acceptance of others, especially in her budding relationship with Andy, one of the two young men who join the class.

Michael Cameron, who plays Andy – and Saro Lepejian, who plays his friend, Eggo – are ‘good guys’, sympathetic, anxious to be supportive, but a little unsure of how to show it. Andy does so by gentle flirtation, Eggo by his awkward gawkiness – except when he dances.

Of all the characters Padilla creates, Nikki is the one with whom many audience members will identify. She is shy, she lacks self-esteem, she is tentative, she sees herself as a victim.

It’s not an easy role, but one any female actor would love to play – and one Jessica Paterson obviously relishes. Her Nikki is tentative, unsure. There is the hurt of past mistreatment in her alert, wary eyes. Yet she is determined to participate. Nothing is more telling than her surprised, gentle smile when she succeeds in a difficult move; nothing is more poignant than her anguish later in the play.

If this sounds a distressing play, of course it is! But there is humour, tons of action and hope. Claudia Barrie finds all the theatricality of the script. The fast repartee, the funny failures as they practice defence tactics, the boxing routines, the music and movement – all of these off set the strained relationships, the sad messages, the fear, and the continual realisation that institutions – and governments – have constantly failed to take action

It is a fine, brave production – one that should be picked up exactly as it is and taken to wider audience.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening night