Miss Blossom Callahan
professional collective @ Jive
6:30pm, Wed 8 Mar 2006
As soon as the lights come up, you know you’re in for a ride on the rough side of the tracks. As the title character – an older woman, turning tricks for free, who still clings to delusions of grandeur both past and future, starts fussing over the indignant vagrant she’s allowed into her cesspool of an apartment. There’s the junkie she slept with last night; there’s the ominous landlord who’ll soon be dead by her hand. Make no mistake – Miss Blossom Callahan is no happy love story, nor raucous comedy; this is the underbelly of the underclass.
There’s something about low-life characters that brings out the best in Rory Walker – his role as Max The Cat is exceptional, being all edge and gritted teeth. But somehow he still manages to be upstaged by Nathan O’Keefe’s Junk in a performance that was grimy and nervous and totally in character. Jacqy Phillips is convincing in the title role – equal parts skank ho, naïvety, and desperation.
The final scene before the lights drop has Blossom lying forlornly on the couch, wailing “Help me!”, hoping to pull off one last scam… never a truer word was spoken. Miss Blossom Callahan is a grubby tale of desperate and seedy characters – and is all the better for it. This was superb Fringe drama, and a credit to all involved.