SHORT+SWEET THEATRE TOP 80 WEEK FOUR SYDNEY 2018 @ AMPA – TOM MANN THEATRE

There are ten very different and very original plays, being performed live on stage this week, at Short and Sweet, the world’s biggest little play festival. Delicious comedy monologues providing laugh-out-loud entertainment, message plays, comedies, dramas and dramedy.

This year in a big new venue for S+S, and located inside the Academy of Music and Performing Arts (AMPA) building, and comfortably seating a maximum of 171. Top 80 Week Four Thursday 22nd February 2018 until Sunday. The S+S festival has new shows every week for eight weeks, and runs from February until April, with both a Top 80 program (Thursdays-Fridays-Saturdays at 7.30pm and Sundays at 6.30pm) together with a separate Wildcards program (Saturdays at 3.30pm and Sundays at 2.30pm). The S+S gala finals take place in April 2018.

 

 

(1) HANG A LAMPSHADE ON IT, our two girls via every murder TV Trope, create their very own police procedural drama, by imagining themselves, to soon be murder victims. Writer: Gregory Crafts, Director: Rosie Niven, Cast: Bronte Pearce (Karen) and Jo Bradley (Abby).

(2) NO OTHER WAY, after fifty years of marriage, James Charles (George) is an elderly widower, finally coming out as gay to his gay son Jeremy. Also seen in flashback, David Neill (as Young George) and Charlie Barnett (as young Charles). Writer, Director: Grant Wilson.

(3) WRITING IN A WALL OF LIGHT drama very reminiscent of the play “Arcadia”. Chaan Wadley (Maude) has lost confidence in her abilities as a heart surgeon. She takes partner Peter Sahlani (Dan) on a hiking adventure. They visit the past, finding a mystical church where quack healer Debbie Tilley (Emily Preston), successfully delivers her message of hope. Writer: Nancy West, Director: Margaret Rose Fitzgerald.

(4) HOLLYWOOD MASALA, Abbey Aziz is a perfectionist writing just one ten-minute Short+Sweet theatre play. One draft is required by Ridwan Hassim (The Producer), but the Method Writer needs Abbie Gallagher (The Muse) to start writing anything. Will the famous ten-minute playwrights, Alex Broun and Pete Malicki, bring their infinite knowledge to the writer’s rescue? Writer, Director: Ridwan Hassim.

(5) MARRIAGE AND MONSTERS, husband and wife superheroes, conflict based comedy, very reminiscent of the movie “The Incredibles”. Starring Makedonka Stoilova (Karen) and Bretton Reis (Steve). A husband and wife experience conflict within their relationship in regards to their chosen profession – they are both superheroes. Writer: Jamie Hughes, Director: Tracey Owens.

(6) GROW UP was a delightful ageism-based comedy sensation, starring 92 year old actor John Hawley as the freshly engaged (Will) ready to marry 18 year old Idianna Dimmit (Sandy). Will meets her parents, Bill Jordan (her dad, Sean) and Natalie Cutler (Sandy’s Mum), “1 2 3 think think think” and yes so many unexpected and expected events, all in under ten minutes. Writer: Vee Malnar. Director: Tom Richards.

(7) QUALITY OF LIFE written by Sevgi Murphy and stunningly directed by Wollongong-based Luke Berman and this three amazing Wollongong-based actors. Inner versus Outer, Black Dog message piece where therapy works wonders. Starring Sophie Bently (Alice), Nat McConochie (Depression), Beth Fuller (Doctor Simpson).

(8) GLADYS GRUNDY starring the brilliant Amanda Lieber as Gladys Grundy, the just very negative, and always interfering busy body. In an original and blunt comedy monologue in one voice, she is telephoning “all her friends” and inviting each person to attend her birthday party on Saturday 6th June. Writer, Director: Wendy Crew.

(9) THIS TOO SHALL PASS was an audience favourite on opening night, the perfect comedy cast, with two fully costumed pirates, Graham Yates (Batholomew, the sadistic Ship’s Surgeon) versus Joel Semande (Thomas, the despicable Pirate). A medical problem to be brutally solved, so will the blockage finally pass? Writer, Director: Ruth Fingret, A/Director: Jennifer Shames.

(10) HIT THE ROAD JACK starring Jack Douglas (Jack) realistically delivers an inner voice, comedy monologue. After four years together, a lengthy written “Dear John” from his ex, delivers all the true reasons why Jack, is only meant to be in a relationship with himself. Writer, Director: Dudley Levell.

Short+Sweet Theatre (@ Tom Mann Theatre) Academy of Music and Performing Arts (AMPA) 136 Chalmers Street Surry Hills

All photos by Chris Lundie.

Short+Sweet Theatre 
Tom Mann Theatre- 136 Chalmers Street Surry Hills.
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