Fresh Track Productions @ North-South Dining Room
7:15pm, Fri 5 Mar 2004
Score: 7
Short Review: Disturbingly entertaining
Songs for the Deaf comprises three short plays by Caleb Lewis. Essentially, each play is a tragedy, but each is also spiced with humour.
Bunny opens with the absurd image of actors in bunny and bear suits. Both Romy Loor and Andrew Brackman display suitably numbed characters, revealing more about their lives than they’d probably care to. This was a nice, solid piece.
The Half Windsor is a cracker. Dealing with prejudices and perception, Caleb Lewis shows that he can act (as a feisty bum) as well as write. The final piece, Rocket Baby, features Roberta Tyrrell playing a corrupted 10-year-old schoolgirl. Gutsy acting, but an incoherent and unbelievable script.
In short, this was a solid and entertaining bit of theatre. It was freaky how easy it was to identify with the characters portrayed, and there’s certainly some stuff in there to think about. This is, by far, the better of Fresh Track’s productions this Fringe.