I  caught up with the final week of heats of the main Short and Sweet theatre program.

As always, the playwrights explored an impressive,  diverse range of subjects in interesting ways. The success of their explorations came down  to how focused the productions were.  A central failing of the less successful pieces  was  their  lack of restraint and over-blown nature.

Venkatesan’s THE QUEST  was the comic highlight of the night  The piece featured a lovely  comic performance by Murali K Santagopan as a young half Jewish, half Indian investment banker struggles to find the woman of his dreams. The  piece was the winner of last year’s  Short and Sweet Chennai Festival.

The life of a carer can be a hellish one and in Mitch Feral’s piece – SWEET ENGINEERING OF THE LUCID MIND conveys this in an uncompromising way.  A long suffering wife has to  deal with her husband’s accelerating, debilitating illness . She hauntingly keeps on repeating the marriage vow refrain,- ‘for better, for worse’.. Ursula Dauenhauer and Valentino Arico deliver sensitive, performances and Steven Tait’s direction keeps things tight.

Gary Pepper’s IRISH STEW is on a similar theme, and is also sensitively told.  Owain James and Ann Elbourne give  two  well judged performances as an elderly Irish couple already well into the ‘going dotty’ phase of their lives.  They have psychologically prepared themselves for  this time..at times they transverse the path well, at other times less successfully. Aishveryaa Nidhi directs well and keeps the piece tight and also conveys well the play’s gentle humour.

Kaz Getts’s OCEAN ROMANCE- director Warren Bradley, cast- Gemma Howe, Simon Lee and Beverley Bugeja- was a quirky, sharp take on the fickleness of how politicians, the media, the military, public opinion judge different refugees applying to make Australia their new home.

Felix Carlyle’s  well performed  piece WRONG DECISION? – director Carlyle, cast- Bradley Stevens, Paul Byrne and Clint Facey- took an interesting angle on the battlefield, the force of national pride.

The main theatre heats are over now and the Festival now swings into its extended Finals season.