Young and Hungry Festival of New Works

by Maaike Olsthoorn - Home Schooled

Yolk seemed a little bit flat, but got to be fantastically awkward towards the end. Some of the acting was a little squishy, but Elliot (Ailua Tagiilima) was a strong and carrying presence. Although the play had its strong points (Here, don’t forget your banana!) there were a number of counterfeit moments. Benji’s t-shirt was both awesome and appalling, simultaneously. The lighting and sound elements were not glaringly obvious – nothing really wrong with them, but they weren’t amazing, either. I do now know what it was that decided that Flip should wear her mother’s Munroe wig for the larger part of the play.

Swan Song came highly recommended and perhaps for that reason was slightly disappointing. It was slightly, disconcertingly, abstract – enough to be a little confusing. That said it was highly, elegantly stylized, and fairly cohesive once you got a hold of said style and flow – the parting note was effectively down to earth in comparison with the rest of the production. Strong, vibrant characters (occasionally a little loud and obnoxious) and fairly plain if effective use of music and lighting were utilized around strong, active staging, including a brief but brilliant song and dance sequence.

RPM opened with a lot of bored looking teenagers, some of them clutching steering wheels, but moved at speed from the moment two of those teenagers picked up their steering wheels and ran around the room yelling “broom broom” over the music. On occasion the actors didn’t pause to let the crowd finish cracking up before continuing their lines, and as such a few pieces of dialogue were lost. However, there was a strong sense of action and drama. The end dragged on just a little bit too long, but the spinning hubcaps more than made up for it.