Are you in the mood to see something very left field, a bit disturbing and even more outrageous? Then the new offering at the Newtown Theatre, young Polish playwright Dorota Maslowska’s debut play, ‘A Couple Of Poor. Polish-Speaking Romanians’ (translation by Benjamin Paloff, adaptation by Lisa Goldman and Paul Sirett) will fit the bill!

The play has been well described as, ‘its Hunter S. Thompson meets the Sex Pistols on a fast-paced road trip to the darkest reaches of your worst nightmare’.

Parcha and Dzina are two indulgent young people who meet at a fancy dress rave party in Warsaw, Poland. Parcha is a ruffian who has a job as an actor on a well-known Polish television soap opera. Dzina is a druggie, a heavily pregnant woman into sniffing glue who can’t remember if she arranged care for her child prior to the party.

They get totally wasted, leave the party in gypsy garb, flag down a passing motorist, jump in, and start their adventure. Everything is going fine until the drugs start to wear off and they have to re-engage with reality and deal what they have done during their binge.

Maslowska’s play is a theatrical, fast paced and entertaining piece. Alice Livingstone direction is in keeping with the style of play. She sets the tone well with a memorable opening scene where Parcha and Dzina are bumbling around in darkness and she has two actors ‘perched’ on the floor, shining torches on them.

Livingstone wins good performances from her cast. Neil Phipps gives a high energy, committed performance as the intense, manic, troubled Parcha. Mairead Berne impressed as the ‘accident waiting to happen’ Dzina.

The supporting cast each played multiple roles. Stand-out portrayals were Sandy Velini as an uncooperative bartender, Cheryl Ward as a vodka drinking wife, hoping to crash her philandering husband’s car, Kim Knuckey as the stressed out driver and John Keightley as a lonely, disabled farm owner.

By play’s end, Maslowska gives her protagonists their due comeuppance! When they go to return back to their normal lives, they are treated like they were the poor, social outcasts that they were pretending to be!

This is a welcome return season of ‘A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians’. The play was originally performed as part of last years New Directions season of new plays at the New Theatre. The current production is from Focus Theatre and plays the Newtown Theatre on the corner of King and Bray streets until the 7th August, 2010.