As I’ve said before, winning is for losers.
I’m not a fan of contests. I don’t think comparison is a helpful way to approach art.*
When I was a child, my father would draw back the curtain in my room. He would greet the morning with the statement “What a great day for the race!” The first time he said it, imagining some important sporting contest, I asked “What race?”
He replied “The human race.”
I wonder whether any other race matters.
But you can go to Royal Randwick and ignore the results. You can focus on the frocks, drink the champagne, and enjoy the spectacle. And have a good time. Which is what I did.
Ten very different ten minute pieces, each a different vision. You don’t need to agree with these visions, or how they’re presented. It’s just good to be shown, or reminded, they exist.
But it would be obtuse, bordering on perversion, to suggest I didn’t have favourites.
All Clear, written and performed by Omri Levy, Daniela Stein and Natasha Reuben, and directed by Samantha Bauer, was pacey with sharp, well executed movement.
Feather, written by Pamela Western, was the intriguing story of two women unhappy with their very different lives. Cleverly directed by Lisa Thatcher, and performed with humour and poignancy by Kate O’Keeffe and Amelia Cuninghame, the play was a thought-provoking exploration of how helping others doesn’t need to get quagmired in moralising.
Winter Retreat by Abigail Somma told the story of two lost souls at a meditation retreat. Directed by Anne Brito, the performances by Edric Hong and Nell Nakkan were both funny and moving.
Now, if some pieces speak to me and others do not, who is it exactly that needs to be judged?
Our friends have a moral duty to terrify us. Paradoxically, it reminds us we’re not alone.
Theatre serves the same purpose. Theatre is otherness. A window to other worlds.
So draw back the curtain, let in the light, and enjoy the view.
Veronica Kaye
* Unless you’re running the contest.
Short and Sweet
http://www.shortandsweet.org/festivals/shortsweet-theatre-sydney-2015
Theatre Red 
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