BLUEBERRY PLAY is a short run, late night offering at the Old Fitz Theatre and well worth the effort it might take to get there at 10pm or the special time of 7pm on Sunday.  It offers a sweet story crafted with a lovely sense of fun by playwright Ang Collins, directed with a similar odd amusement by Sheridan Harbridge and performed with wide eyed comic excellence by solo performer Julia Robertson.

But there’s more going on in this second person, direct to audience, relation of events in an adolescent life than just the humour that’s squeezed into its compact 60 minutes… it’s bursting with the tartness of  themes around child carers, adolescent sex, mental health, the power of female friendships in adversity and the inequities of class.

The girl is on her way to a party.  There’s a private school boy she likes and she is dressed as a blueberry for the occasion.  Her logic is sound about this choice and she seems confident in her shy and slightly cynical way.  She’s got a bit else on her mind beside the nicely proportioned Johnno though.  Dad isn’t well on a whole heap of fronts, Dave the old, fat Lab is coming to the end, Mum is harassed and coming to the end of her empathy tether.  Add in a chili sauce issue and there’s a tussle going on inside the rotund velveteen fruit. Continue reading BLUEBERRY PLAY: SWEET, TART ENJOYMENT →