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Astrid Pill 'Easy Ryder' J B Room Saturday 11 June Personal Column: Desperate and dateless, damaging parenting has left me with an unhealthy sexual prolivity, looking for a man as an answer to what's missing, dead or alive, should apply at my back door. Playwright Fiona Sprott takes every single woman's lowest moment in her bid for everlasting true love and dumps it into our heroine for a one hour embarrassment. Lists of desirable qualities, Prozac, unfortunate pre-adolescent encounters, sister envy, and of course, Mum and Dad - it's all there in this black comedy. Astrid Pill does a fantastic job in this showcase role. Brimming with verve, she creates a compelling characterisation that you couldn't shift your gaze from. Director Alyson (Daisy) Brown had Pill moving all about the tiny J B Room cabaret space, and together they invented some very clever and sometimes lascivious business. Numerous songs throughout the piece are stylised according to the topic at hand and were peppily sung by Pill with panache and enthusiasm. Stephen Sheehan provided more than the occasional accompanying piano - often he created a subtle and silent manifestation of the woman's remembered or imagined menfolk. Pill's luxurious hair and make-up by Dee Easton put on an act all by itself. The theatricality of the piece in the hands of Brown and Pill, and the excellent songs, saved the day as the script lacked a strong narrative and there were perhaps more devils in our heroine's life than most people could care about. The women in the audience related better to the context than perhaps a typical man like myself - the main thing I left the theatre with was an affirmation that Astrid Pill is a consummate performer. Black comedies about bad luck or dumb decisions I can handle, bleak comedies about dissociated consciousness leave me flat.  |
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