A VOYEURISTIC PEEK |
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) Written, directed, designed and operated by Thomas Sainsbury Produced by Roberto Nascimento Fingerprints and Teeth Productions at 420 Bar, 323 K Road, Auckland From 11 Jun 2009 to 14 Jun 2009 Reviewed by Jessie Kollen, 12 Jun 2009 |
Have you ever been at a hen's night? Or have you ever had a hen's night of your own? If the answer is "yes" to either of these questions then you'll have a good idea of what to expect from Thomas Sainsbury's Little Blonde Hen...
As I enter the bar - yes, the play is performed at K Rd's 420 Bar (above the Rising Sun) - I am apprehensive about the show: A bunch of women getting drunk and behaving like idiots is it the kind of thing you can only enjoy if you are doing it too ...?
Luckily the acting is so good that I do enjoy it, very much. But without the convincing cast and their snappy comic timing, such a play could potentially be painful.
In Little Blonde Hen seven women gather for an evening of pre-wedding debauchery: They start at home, they nibble on nibbles, shoot tequila and comment on each others' weight and clothes before heading to the night club - where the real butchery begins. But this is also where some audience members might've lost interest if the acting and direction wasn't spot on.
Maybe it's just because I'm a woman and I've been in the women's bathroom at a bar and heard it all before ... It's quite a stretch to make drunken drama into real theatre and it's the mark of good actors and a good playwright (and director) that it becomes something other people might want to watch.
Nicole (Victoria Spence) is the bride-to-be who provides a sort of groundline for the extremity of her girl friends' characters. Nicole's getting cold feet over the wedding, her heart is sweet, but we're just not sure if her future husband is.
Caroline (Serena Cotton) is her future sister-in-law. She's never met Nicole's friends before and isn't pleased with what she sees: Lara (Jessica Joy Wood) is much too wild; Elvira (Antonia Prebble), Nicole's Maid of Honour, is more into the hen's night than the bride herself; Megan (Beth Allen) is back from overseas and has something up her sleeve; Rochelle (Siobhan Marshall) can't bear to share the spotlight, even on her friend's hen night; and Giselle (Claire Van Beek) just can't seem to stop taking things...
Little Blonde Hen takes a look at modern women, or at least modern women within the competitive context of a night on the town. Sainsbury writes carefully within realistic parameters and the result is a voyeuristic peek into their lives.
If what we see through the 'window' is a superficial view of seven women, that means they are not only ones to have a good time. Their audience will have a great night as well.
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