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Car Crash Director: Roxxy Bent Wed 10 Nov, Feast @ Fowler's live Described as a work in progress, Roxxy Bent's 'Car Crash' was presented more as a semi-costumed reading. Involving many from the local community, the embryonic work received wholehearted support from the capacity audience who were perhaps supportive more of their friends at times than the work as a piece of effective drama as it currently stands. Sure, there are many good things in it, but I am led to believe the cast has not had much time at all to familiarise itself with the script and accompanying songs as they currently stand. Written by a woman, it is not surprising that that the best laughs come from the pair of lesbian bushwalkers (Helen Vicqua and Marg Jude) and the great Roger Shepard who certainly knows how to work a stage and an audience for laughs. Here is a play which knows how to make a local audience laugh, and they lapped it up - warts and all. Problems were obvious - both technically and in terms of presenting the action on stage - in the many mobile calls that drew the seemingly disparate collection of characters together; though no doubt this will be tightened as work on the production progresses. The music however creates more of a problem. The ensemble piece which opens and closes the work works but Eric Kuhlmann has to decide whether his songs are going to be an integral part of the action as they generally do in musical theatre. I understand the cast members have not yet had time to learn them but at the moment they tend to comment on the action rather than being a part of time. Yet again there seems to have been problems with a muffled piano sound, and the accompanying violin had many problems with pitch and intonation. As a work in progress 'Car Crash' has much for a local audience to enjoy and identify with. Tightening and better timing will be necessary for this to work as effective theatre. However gauging by the audience's reaction, by the time the work is complete and ready for its full production, they'll have 'em rolling in the aisles.  |
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