REVIEW DOMINION POST 13/01/06
Review by Laurie Atkinson
After a long absence, Jo Smith makes a triumphant return to Bats Theatre with an entertaining and kaleidoscopically-told group of stories and portraits of mainly women in a production by Stephen Bain that fair sizzles with invention and wit.
A pile of sand, a saw horse, a music stand, a video camera, a chair and two blackboard walls make up the set. The backdrop is a white screen showing the characters in live video and recorded scenes: sand castles in a car park or dance sequences including Smith and chorus lines tapping their way through a Busby Berkelely routine and Ester Williams under water.
It's like performance art, but without the pretentiousness that seems to attach itself to this art form, mixed with revue sketches, stand-up comedy and Julie HIll's knack of combining believable people, lively, offbeat stories and a dry sense of humour.
we meet along the way a would-be actress and her agent (told with huge silhouttes onthe screen), a four-year-old Red Riding-Hood, Rebecca in an S&M dungeon getting her revenge on her old maths teacher, the unhappy life of Dougal (told with chalk drawings), young Dusty's sand castles, and Katheryn's horse-riding audition.
Smith is in comedic control throughout, whether as the actress being told she looks like Liv Tyler, or as the young Dusty and Dougal. Add Peter Daube's music and Megan Adams' video choreography to the mix and you have a sparkling beginning to the theatrical year.
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