Archive | September, 2023

Betty is a Butcher

8 Sep

Thomas Campbell is an extraordinary performer.

Betty is a Butcher is his debut as a playwright. Presenting this one-man show himself, Campbell offers a fascinating series of vignettes. A grand old actress talks of love. An online sex worker growls and complains. A child tasked with giving a speech at school finds unexpected help. A man submits to counselling for abuse of his boyfriend. And there’s the delightful surprise of the final number.

Are these scenes connected? I’m not sure. Two motifs bubble and crackle through: unicorns and the heart. It’s an intriguing jigsaw, a teasing meditation on dreams, desires, and deep dissatisfactions.

Campbell is eminently watchable, displaying a glorious range.

Director Kate Gaul creates a simple but beautiful theatrical space for Campbell to play. Lit wonderfully by Victor Kalka (wait for the disco ball) and buoyed by Nate Edmondson’s sound design and composition, PACT looks and sounds terrific.

Paul Gilchrist

Betty is a Butcher by Thomas Campbell

at PACT as part of the Sydney Fringe

until 9 September

sydneyfringe.com/events/betty-is-a-butcher/

Image by Geoff Magee

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Banana Crabtree Simon

7 Sep

Alan has started to forget things. Just little things, but his wife is concerned. His doctor asks him to remember three words. They become the title of this piece.

Alan has early onset dementia. This one-man show portrays the development of the disease.

Written by David Hendon, it’s a work both beautifully crafted and searingly truthful. Alan does not want to accept this is happening. He desperately holds on to the belief that his memory lapses are mere aberrations. He interprets the concern of his loved ones as a desire to prove him wrong. As his forgetfulness deepens, we see how it’s the ability to maintain a coherent vision of the past that grants us a place in the present.

As Alan, CJ de Mooi is magnificent. He presents such a wonderfully rich portrayal – the denial, the anger, the warmth, the fear – that it feels utterly real, that it seems unbelievable that it’s a just performance. A gushingly naïve evaluation? Such is the power of this show.

It’s an empathy maker: we feel for Alan and – this is a testament to the writing and the performance – we feel for those who care for him, though we never meet them. Alan’s story, their story, is silently repeated in many homes, unnoticed by the rest of us, or deliberately forgotten.  

I’ve suggested before that the best theatre either reminds the miserable of happiness or the happy of misery. On the strength of such a production, I would add this: from darkness, theatre makes beauty. Hearts are softened by the honest telling of hard truths.

Paul Gilchrist

Banana Crabtree Simon by David Hendon

Emerging Artists Sharehouse, as part of the Sydney Fringe

until 16 Sept

sydneyfringe.com/events/banana-crabtree-simon/

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