Left - Don’t Stare Too Much! featuring Kate Worsley and Brendon McDonall. Cover - Mademoiselle Fifi, featuring Kate Worsley, Gwyneth Price, and Susannah Hardy. Photos - Tom EvangelidisThese two pieces were developed through improvisation by playwright Jo Turner in collaboration with his cast and are not exactly traditional “plays” at all. Both are somewhat unconventional works that favour movement, music and other elements of physical performance other than the use of dialogue, whilst not becoming “movement based theatre” either. There is some scripted dialogue, but it is used as a secondary means of conveying meaning, and this is handled quite differently in each work.
The first short, Don’t Stare Too Much, is not a narrative so much as a series of sketches along the broad topic of the trials and tribulations of the dating scene. Structured by a series of “rules” periodically delivered by a kind of singing MC (Drew Fairley), they are typical of the postfeminist Cleo-come-Sex in the City type of received wisdom on the etiquette of how to impress a man on a date, cribbed from an actual self-help book. “Don’t talk to a man first”, “Don’t kiss on the first date” and the title itself are examples, and in each case we are shown various amusing ways this advice can go horribly awry, or, perhaps, isn’t such bad advice after all.
These scenes take the form of comedic theatrical sketches, which vary between broad physical humour (be prepared for some of the best daggy dance moves you’re ever likely to endure) of varying levels of absurdity played to music, a small number of scenes with normal dialogue, and many which take the form of near-mime, in which various vocalisations are used to punctuate the action but are barely audible and/or incomprehensible, throwing the focus onto expressing the scene through the keenly observed body language. Indeed, a great deal of this play seems to function as a showcase for some wonderfully funny and well-executed “stage business” which the actors create in one awkward scenario after another, each portraying a broadly consistent character type rather than strictly the same role each time.
The appeal of this show is perhaps not universal, as not everyone will relate to the kind of “dating scene” portrayed, nor will the often deliberately cringe-inducing humour be to everyone’s taste. However, it is a light, entertaining piece that is often quite hilarious and its format of tiny scenes is easily digestible. The performers are all quite talented comic actors, with the five individuals (not counting the MC) swapping partners into different combinations and a multitude of engaging character dynamics.
The same cast (with the addition of Rob Jago) return after a break between performances for the second piece, Mademoiselle Fifi. Concerning the eventual intersection of a quartet of terminally bored Prussian soldiers and a trio of similarly underemployed French prostitutes, it is based on an 1882 Guy de Maupassant short story of the Franco-Prussian war. Thus, while the play features more of an actual narrative by comparison to the first one (although it’s nevertheless a very slender plot) it remains similarly unusual in its approach to dialogue… or rather the lack thereof.
Although not overtly lacking in scripted lines to the same extent as Don’t Stare Too Much, the spoken dialogue here is entirely delivered in largely improvised gibberish versions of German and French respectively. Covered by a lot of deliberate mumbling, the faux-German uses a lot of salient vowels that to the untrained ear sound like German, peppered with occasional real words like “Ich bin” and “Hindenburg” along with would-be Germanic pronunciations of identifiable English words, and of course the recognisable “Ja” and “Nein!” The pseudo-French is much the same, with perhaps a few more real words thrown in for good measure.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that this whole idea sounds godawful, but it’s not quite as bizarre a concept as you may think. Imagine a marginally more intelligible version of the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show and you’re on the right track. Plus the whole scenario is set up and humorously interrupted at a couple of points by a stuffy narrator’s voice that fills in a few blanks. It actually works quite well, occupying some kind of strange netherworld between wordless acting and watching a play in another language without benefit of full translation.
So it’s really not the device that’s the problem, but rather the narrative adaptation. In truth, there is no particular part of the play (up until its conclusion) that especially fails to work. Rather, the piece as a whole drags on too long at every point, with each individual scene overstaying its welcome and milking the gags beyond the point where they ceases to amuse. Boredom may be a valid, even potentially interesting subject for a play, but not if it ends up transferring that boredom to its audience. The whole thing would have been vastly improved by some savage editing. While the play had many extremely funny moments, its tendency to drift led to an ultimately flawed result, crowned by a particularly odd, confusing and unsatisfyingly abrupt ending.
If viewed together, these two short plays make for a mixed evening that is both entertaining and inventive, if by no means groundbreaking in either respect. Some considerable talents are involved, and their performances are all very enjoyable, especially Susannah Hardy and Gwyneth Price. My parting criticism - and it is one I hesitate to make given the need to support the always struggling fortunes of local independent theatre - is that I question the decision for these shows to be separately ticketed as opposed to being presented as the double bill they so clearly are. Although well within their rights to do so, individually selling two shows by the same cast and author performed consecutively raised my eyebrow, and depending on your personal budget even the $50 “deal” for both shows may seem a bit steep.
Darlinghurst Theatre Company and Jo Turner present
JANUARY’S FEAST OF JO TURNER COMEDIES
Don’t Stare Too Much!
Tuesday - Saturday 7pm, Sunday 5pm
Mademoiselle Fifi
Tuesday - Saturday 8.30pm Sunday 6.30pm
Venue: Darlinghurst Theatre Company 19 Greenknowe Ave, Potts Point
Season: Wednesday 7 January - Saturday 31 January
Tickets: Adult $35, Concession $30 or see both shows for $50
Bookings: www.darlinghursttheatre.com / 02 8356 9987
