A gentle, whimsical encounter with the rather eccentric world of Lally Katz is what in store for audiences going to see her new show, STORIES I WANT TO TELL YOU IN PERSON.
Lally’s main claim to fame till this stage is NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH, a show she wrote for Robyn Nevin, which was a big hit when it played Belvoir’s main upstairs theatre back in August, 2011.
The new show sees her take centre stage herself, the first time, as she tells us, in her professional career, that she has taken on the mantle of performer.
She comes across as being well suited to the role, with her naturally effusive personality, in a show that runs just over an hour.
The show’s format sees her basically put her recent life experiences on stage, in a comically confessional fashion.
We are brought up to speed with her love life very quickly. Lally tells us she is a half Jew- on her father’s side- and that her current flame is a full Jew, and despite things starting off slowly, the romance is going steadily now.
We hear how Belvoir originally commissioned her to write a play about the Global Financial Crisis but she could never quite got her head around it, and instead found the raw material of recent life experiences much more appealing to her muse.
A comic highlight is her encounters with a number of rather dubious fortune tellers in New York including the savvy, hard edged Cookie.
The show’s predominant theme emerges early on. Lally’s passion is her writing, it definitely takes centre stage. Her question is, can she make enough room in her life for a satisfying romantic life?!
A simple, functional design, set by Ralph Myers, features a spangly golden curtain and a multi-coloured disco ball-light that comes into play late in the piece.
Be advised, this is not a solo performance! At times, Lally does share the stage with one of her own character creations, the Apocalypse Bear, well played by an anonymous performer who hopefully doesn’t get too warm under all that bear skin!
Lally Katz’s STORIES I WANT TO TELL YOU IN PERSON, directed by Anne-Louise Sarks, opened downstairs at Belvoir Street on Thursday 18th April and runs until Sunday 26th May, 2013.
The production is to have a further life in August, playing Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre between the 9th and the 25th August, 2013.
© David Kary
4th May, 2013
Tags: Sydney Stage Reviews- STORIES I WANT TO TELL YOU IN PERSON , Lally Katz, Belvoir Street Theatre, Anne-Louise Sarks, Ralph Myers, Sydney Arts Guide, David Kary