Coconut Collective Clan
The award winning Coconut Collective Clan is a 2019 Sydney Fringe event being held City Tattersalls Club, the hub for this year’s festival. The Coconut Collective Clan has some good ideas and proposes an interesting scenario. There is a religion on a Pacific island that believes coconuts are the physical portal to the divine spirit. They worship the coconut and only eat and drink coconuts. This is not a thriving religion and their numbers are dwindling. We meet the possibly only surviving members, played by Shannon Maugham, Jennifer Laycock and Johanna Lyon. These three performers are the driving force behind the production.
The CCC considers some deep and significant philosophical ideas. Some of these ideas are the nature and ethos of religions and cults and the significance of an enigmatic leader, meditation when coupled with deprivation, and how a manifesto takes on a power beyond its words and ideas. The CCC looks at the dynamics of small group relationships in an isolated community, the clash between capitalism and traditional existences, global warming and well-meaning but misguided therapists.
The show includes humour, music and dance to give the audience a variety of experiences before the narrative takes a few dark and macabre twists.
The Fringe Festival is a great showcase of creative talent and it gives young artists an opportunity to test their ideas, skills and talent with a live audience. I felt this production needed some work and re-writing but it does have potential to be very interesting and entertaining. It did take out the People’s Choice Award & Best Actor at the Short + Sweet Queensland Festival. There is an audience out there for the Coconut Collective Clan.
The Coconut Collective Clan is a 2019 Sydney Fringe event being held City Tattersalls Club until 29th September.
