Dee & Cornelius Presents
SHIT
By Patricia Cornelius
25 June – 5 July 2015
Southbank Theatre, The Lawler
Director Susie Dee
Set and Costume Designer - Marg Horwell
Lighting Designer – Rachel Burke
Sound Designer - Anna Liebzeit
Producer – Ebony Bott
Performed by – Peta Brady, Sarah Ward,
Nicci Wilks
Shit is a vivid and vital work. A
vivid and vital work that is almost uncanny in its capacity to reveal the
perpetuating triggers that activate generational carnage in our growing
underclass. It is as though the essence
of naturalism has been distilled and refined to highlight the plights of three
characters who are very ‘close to the wire’.
And in turn it is presented with a clarity that allows us to touch on
the roots of emotion and motivation. It
is like a sharp knife scraping the flesh off the bone and exposing something
that is too raw to be fully comprehended.
Cornelius’s insights offer a rarefied satisfaction akin to reveling in
the abject.
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| Peta Brady, Nicci Wilks and Sarah Ward Photo - Sebastian Bourges |
Shit is about three ‘forsaken’ women.
Three women who have been brutalized from the onset who have only seen
glimmering moments of kindness who support and antagonize each other in their
shared wretchedness and viciously defensive vulnerability.
For the broader community it presents a
very sad indictment on what we tacitly accept what is happening in the
ever-growing underbelly of our communities.
It is also, at times, heartwarming and poignant as it signposts avenues
for healing through consistent caring for the very young at least.
The raw emotion expressed by the actors
seems to be barely modified from what one would witness on the streets – but we
are watching a refined work of art.
The writing is poetic and vital and is
matched so skillfully with beautifully choreographed Physical Theatre and a
dash of instinctive magic and insight from Director Susie Dee.
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| Peta Brady, Nicci Wilks and Sarah Ward Photo - Sebastian Bourges |
Something Dickensian is brought out through Dee’s in the direction and a conveyance of how the brutality of surviving has created/modified character. All three actors (Peta Brady, Sarah Ward, Nicci Wilks) express their characters emotional damage through a kind of stunted physicality and posture as well as in grotesque facial expressions and Cornelius’s carefully chosen words. Arms are held threatening out from the body and muscles are continually being flexed. We are engaged on kinesthetic and emotional levels in the desperation and turmoil that each character feels. Watching these convincing characters on stage offers a remove and a chance to think a bit and try to understand. And perhaps whisper ‘but for the grace of God?’
The set by Marg Horwell could be some
underground tunnel such as the old tunnels at the once Spencer Street Station,
they could be street windows and they could be restrictive prison cells. And featured there is one of those huge round
convex magnifying mirrors, that suggests the threat of what could be laying in
wait, round the next corner.
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| Peta Brady, Nicci Wilks and Sarah WardPhoto - Sebastian Bourges |
Anna Leibzeit underpins with a subtly
entwined soundscape that is edgy and provocative – at times sharp and
disturbing.
Generally people seem to be raving about
this very satisfying work.
Suzanne Sandow
