Wildcards Week 3 of Short+Sweet Sydney 2014 Festival, has ten short plays, with 14 playwrights, so let’s see the consequences.
THE AUDITION was developed through Crash Test Drama and Script In Hand. You just have to experience the Aussie bogan/feral edition of Hamlet, definitely not written by Shakespeare.
MAROON BY DAY and despite external appearances, at the end they finally discover that their kidnap victim really is the wrong person. Unexpected happenstance.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN yes unique existential and absurdist chess game as played by four players, explores the human condition as written by its four playwrights, is a must-see stand-out example of great ten minute theatre. Delightfully eccentric.
COME IN SPINNER is not your usual game of two-up, and the stylised three heads up, becomes a wartime game of sudden death.
A PLAY LIKE THIS so what is this comedy play within a play within a play, and all that she actually wants is sex? Or is it? Decision Time for its two playwrights.
MAN IN A JAM with Debbie Tilley (Susan) and Gerard Hawkins (Richard) as a “man in a jam” and his lip-biting has become uncontrollable, whilst the now untenable marriage, dissolves before your eyes. Uncomfortable.
IN AMBER written by Graham Yates, lets you enter the world of the perennial loser, a predator taxidermist, so will he meet his match with his latest conquest, who is much more than just a female butcher? Captivating.
GRATITUDE is a timely morality tale of unexpected consequences, for the annoyingly angry man on the park bench, when he encounters a random stranger, Mister Butter Chicken. Two standout performances by David Williams (Quinton Daniels) and Ramesh Krishnaswami (Mister Butter Chicken).
DOG EARED has four famous characters from books, come back to life on stage, as recycled new versions of their former selves. Quirky.
THE BET starts initially with Jimmy showing a gambling addict’s point of view, and then we see two different attitudes to winning and losing, but in the end Jimmy stakes to win big on the track, and also wins big in the unhappily married stakes too.
Week 3 of WILDCARDS played at the King Street Theatre Newtown between the 25th and 27th January, 2014.