by Curial
I didn’t think I would get to the opening night of this play on time, rushing from one event to another (the joys of being a mature university student), but I managed to arrive in time.
The opening scene highlighted the excellent acting skills of Catherine Wilkin, playing the role of Detective Carapetis, and helped to set the tone of the play; later on, the audience are introduced to the supporting characters and their role in the disappearance of Hannah – the ‘Girl In Tan Boots’ – and we slowly see the bits of the puzzle come together and the relationships between Hannah, her co-workers and her mother.
It is superbly written and it was a delight to see an all-female cast, but I did feel some of the roles were miscasted and the acting was a bit too over the top; JJ Fong in the role of Katie felt a bit pressured and was reflected in the deliverance of her dialogue, along with the stereotypical portrayal of working mother Lucy by Anoushka Klaus – I feel a bit more realism could have been injected into their performances. Jodie Hillock and Toni Potter were perfectly casted as Mandy and Antoinetta and gave a stellar performance; Catherine Downes perfectly filled the role of Hannah’s concerned and grieving mother, challenging the path that Detective Carapetis goes down to find Hannah.
The closing scene didn’t really answer the question that the whole audience had on their minds – what happened to Hannah? – and we were presented with an ending that seemed rather rushed. Overall, the play was comedic and I found myself laughing my times but it was also dark, making you question your own roles in events that did not play out as planned.
The play was adapted for an Auckland audience, as it was originally performed in Australia and Tahli Corin did a perfect job of this; I did feel the direction could have been tightened in places, but all-in-all, it was a great performance and it something I would definitely pay money to see.
It is being performed at The Basement theatre until the 22nd of March, so if you want to watch something that will entertain and make you think, then go along to see it.
Three and a half stars
http://thestandard.org.nz/the-mein-kampf-distraction/
“Les boys do cabaret…”
Wasn’t it Prince Harry who dressed up as a Nazi? Prince Harry the Nazi the tabloids called him. Big joke ha ha.
“Les boys got leather straps Les boys got SS caps,
But they got no guns now…”
While the Kyle Chapman and the extreme Right and the extreme Left have their ritualistic street battles and the Mongrel Mob greet each other with “Sieg Heil” wear coal scuttle helmets and sport swastika tatoos on their face or necks.
“Get dressed up get a little risque, got to do a little s & m these days
It’s all in fun now…”
The real fascists are not Kim Dotcom, or the Mongrel Mob, or Prince Harry or even Kyle Chapman. And one things is for sure, the real fascists will not be dressing up in anything like that, you can bet the life of your children on it. Their flag may be sporting a black background but instead of a swastika, (way too obvious), it instead will have a white symbolic trade marked sporting logo more strongly reminiscent of the Nike Swoosh.
But the real hallmark of a fascist will be that they will first dehumanise those they oppose, the German Nazis did it to the Jews, and the Israeli Zionists do it to the Palestinians. And now the faceless spooks behind the hooded armed thugs that stormed the Dotcom mansion, with assault rifles and helicopters, are using the same tactic against Dotcom, dehumanise your opponent, turn him into a recognised hate figure before destroying him. So whale oik and Jonkey have got the order wrong, they will get better with practice.
Comments are closed.