Chronicles of a Sleepless Moon (FringeTIX)
the Suitcase Royale @ Bosco Theatre
6:30pm, Wed 21 Mar 2007
Walking into The Bosco for Chronicles of a Sleepless Moon is a somewhat familiar experience; the precarious piles of junk on-stage is eerily reminiscent of The Ghosts on Ricketts Hill. Good job, then, that Chronicles is also performed by the Suitcase Royale, in what appears to be a show at the other end of the creative experiments that they seem to employ.
Plot? Newsman is chasing the mad Doctor and The Butcher for a story he knows is there, and gets dragged into a scheme to map subterranean Australia using a craft powered by the blood of cows slaughtered by The Butcher (who’s on the run after killing his wife and mincing her into sausages).
Pretty much what you’d expect, right?
It’s an odd production in a way – most of the set is junk, but their intricate use and quick timing demonstrates what can be achieved on a shoestring budget, and the elaborate set-piece for their subterranean vehicle is cleverly built, allowing for everything from shadow puppetry to a tiny room to an elevated stage. Mix this up with some lovely drunken music (drums, double bass & guitar) and lots of humour (thump… DEAD), and you’ve got a mirthalicious winner of a tall tale.
Chronicles benefits from being a (more) complete performance than Ricketts; and, what’s more, it’s an entertaining story told by entertaining storytellers. It’s far from the best tale ever penned (or evolved – it would’ve been fantastic to have seen the evolution of this piece), but the manner in which it’s told makes this memorable.