Meet
Blasko Tupper(Alice Boyle), she’s not your ordinary teenager. Her
parents (Shaun Brown and Alex Burgess) are extremely eccentric,
mad-scientists-a- part-of-a-secret-society kind of eccentric, but this
time they’ve gone too far. This time, thanks to their meddling they’re
going to cause the end of the world as we know it, and Blasko in a fit
of teenage rebellion has decided she’s not going to let them do it. No
instead she’s going to save the world one teenager at a time. How? By
holding the party to end all parties that will end at 5am with Blasko
blowing up all her friends and sending them into an alternate dimension
when Al Gore is president of the United States.
We
soon meet the rest of the gang who are invited to Blasko’s big bang and
discover that they are every bit as weird and wonderful as Blasko and
her parents are. There’s Motormouth(Patrick Wingrove-Lupton) and
Suckface(Louris van der Geer) a nerdy couple who are so-in love that
they don’t want to die without getting laid first. Then there’s Hilary(Stephanie Calthorpe) who is still in love with Motormouth declaring
that she has to be with him because “I’m the one who’s stalking you”.
There’s the school power couple Sarah(Caitlin Murphy) and Zach(Jay
Haggert) who aren’t as perfect as they seem. A little romantic triangle
has formed between Rainbow(Siena Stone), Hugo(Jack Matthews) and the
tomboyish Tank(Laura Wheelwright). While Pluto(Sarah Garry) the local
science whiz-kid contemplates her friendship with the laconic Piper(Celia McCarthy) and finally the school’s two cool girls Tiffany(Maggie Kus) and Demi(Grace Quealy) alternate between discussing
clothing mistakes, dieting musts and Demi’s potential death from a
peanut allergy.
As
Blasko’s party begins we discover that she has locked all of her
party-goers into her family’s Brighton mansion and electrified the
fences to prevent any escapes. She also warns everyone that whatever
the guests do, “Do not feed the parents” whom she has
captured and placed in a large cage. Of course things are bound to go
wrong and her diabolical parents do escape and proceed one by one to
turn the kids into Zombies. So now not only does each group have to
face their own personal teenage drama, but they have to survive in a
zombie horror film as well. Punctuating all of this is a myriad of
musical songs which the cast lip-sync along with to help propel the
story along. The songs vary from Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry Be Happy,
The Violent Femmes Blister in the Sun, Des’ree’s Kissing You (from Baz
Lurmann’s Romeo + Juliet) to Free Radical’s finale You Get What You
Give. A highlight being the “Bollywood Diversion” featuring a
choreographed dance routine set to Bhangra music.
The
performers really seem to be enjoying themselves on stage and each has
their moment to shine delivering little moments of poetry or internal
monologue that helps to develop their characters. Most of these
thoughts and opinions seem to resonate deeply with the actors playing
the roles and it feels as though they are drawn from the actor’s own
experiences of being a teenager and contemplating the end of the world.
The direction by Anthony Crowley and Danielle Carter is tight and
wisely never lets up allowing the show to never lose its pace. The set
design of an empty suburban pool by Evan Granger looks amazing and the
lighting design (by Lisa Mibus) and the Video Art (by Brad Picken)
compliments the set and the performers beautifully.
In
short Motormouth and Suckface is a romp, a rollercoaster ride through
the end of the world and beyond. The show is equal parts Dawson’s
Creek, Night of the Living Dead and Maniac Mansion (an old computer
game that oddly also features teenagers, mad scientists and an empty
swimming pool). Most importantly though Motormouth and Suckface is a
lot of fun and that’s the real reason you should be rushing to go and
see it.
St Martins Youth Arts Centre proudly presents MOTOR-MOUTH & SUCKFACE
An Apocalyptic Love Story by Anthony Crowley
Venue: The Randall Theatre, St.Martins Theatre, 44 St.Martins Lane South Yarra Preview: Tues May 15 at 8pm Dates/Times: Wed - Sat May 16 - 26 @ 8pm, Matinee Sat May 26 @ 2pm Tickets: $21.50 full, $17.50 concession, $15 members, $70 family - two adults & two children Bookings: 9252 0760 or book online at www.stmartinsyouth.com.au
