Review: Tastings

Mudfest's 'Tastings', curated by Justin Nott, offered a seven course degustation of delicious morsels.

Hayley Jach in 'Dream Time' starts with a girl in a blonde wig and fairy wings telling a childhood monologue until... woops she's forgotten the words and she's actually drunk and accosting the audience. It's a disarming and unnerving beginning that paves the way for more treats.

Domini Marshall's 'Right Beside You' starts with 'He loves me, He loves me not, She loves me, She Loves me not." A couple spend a typical evening arguing over holidays and intimacy. It's a mundane tale with a refreshing twist. Small details take on larger meanings, such as that eternal question, pizza or thai?

Poet Darren Parker, seen previously on the Mudfest stage in 'Poetry Double Bill', gives a more restrained performance devoted to his grandmother Dulcie in 'Me Mum's Mum'. The tone ranges from childish sweetness to bitter adolescence, and reveals the quieter side of Darren's performance.

Hannah White's 'Dinner' provides a good ol' family meal but the characters who come to the table are far from meat and three veg. With a Hi-5 obsessed daughter, a son who thinks he's a vampire thanks to "that show all the kids are watching...'Truly Bloody'", and a mother hitting the bottle after a stressful day at work, it can only end in chaos. It's ridiculous and hilarious, with a whole heap of heart.

Hayley Bracken's 'Lovers' seems at first like the dessert that has come too early, with its sickly sweet romance. But like a trendy salted-caramel macaroon, this play within a play within a play quickly reveals its bite, and then leaves a genuinely sweet aftertaste.

Tilly Lunken and Dione Joseph offer the richest tasting of the night in 'Curtain Call'. It's Thursday wash-day at the nursing home. Gracie, an aging playwright suffering from dementia struggles to remember, and forget, her past. As the play of Gracie's life unfolds (the laundry becomes a stage, the nurses actresses, the clothes costumes), the women share their disappointments too. The plot is intricately layered and many-toned, from joyous to heartbreaking, brought to life by some very talented actresses. It's a play to be savoured.

As with Samantha Law's 'Just Peachy', a warm monologue from a shy girl that offers piercing observations and... a peach. Samantha has brilliant comic timing and manages to reach the heights of despair and humour in the same line. She has the audience hanging off every word, and wiping away tears of joy at the conclusion.

The shorts benefitted from work-shopping by industry professionals, and it shows. They were sharp, professional, and surprising in all the right ways, leaving a very satisfied audience at the end.