All images by Clare Hawley

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, with a two for one deal at the Kings Cross Theatre, a double bill of two brand new Australian works, GOOD PEOPLE and SHANDY’S CORNER.

Both works show how the Yule tide can turn into a wave of misery, that the ho ho ho of holiday can quickly turn to hokum and humbug and horror.

Katy’ Warner’s GOOD PEOPLE has a bunch of chums holidaying in a Third World country when disaster strikes. Tropical paradise turns topical hell.

At first, the audience is in the dark as to whether the disaster is natural, like a tsunami or earthquake, or man made.

We soon discover it is man made, but still uncertain to whether the tourists are under terrorist attack or caught up in a coup.

It’s the uncertainty as much as the carnage witnessed and the danger, clear and present, that impacts upon this group of girlfriends, privileged princesses in comparison to the people whose turf they’re on.

Their comparatively gilt edged lives become guilt edged as courage and confederacy dessert them.

There’s fine ensemble acting here with Clementine Anderson, Laura Djanegara, Sasha Dyer, Chika Ikogwe, Jane Watt and Emma Wright presenting a poignant and provocative picture of complacancy pitched into conflict.

SHANDY’S CORNER by Gretel Vella, sounds like it might be set in a bar where a snug had been sequestered by a lemonade infused beer drinker, but it’s the name of a womens refuge run by a heart of gold woman called Shandy, trying to spread a bit of peace on earth and goodwill to those who need her shelter, even those who are in denial of the toxic domestic situation they need shelter from.

Like GOOD PEOPLE, SHANDY’S CORNER boasts excellent on point ensemble performance with Anderson and Djanegara joined by Harriet Gordon-Anderson, Meg Clarke, Zoe Jensen and Vaishnavi Suryaprakash.

Both plays are directed with clear sighted, playful guidance by Lucy Clements.

BLUE CHRISTMAS plays the Kings Cross Theatre till December 22.