Dunedin’s Hurdy Dur and Wow! Productions have mounted Milk Milk Lemonade at this year’s Dunedin Fringe Festival. First appearing in New York in 2009, this is its New Zealand premiere.

It is a bizarrely original, darkly edged comedy. It contains a pyromaniac in a onesie, a wannabe comedian chicken, a dying chicken farmer, a lady in a leotard and a ribbon dancing eleven year old boy. This fantastical combination bursts into a flurry of energy on stage. 

Playwright Joshua Conkel said: “I wanted to write a play about growing up queer that takes place in a nightmare landscape that expresses how terrifying life can be for gay kids in an expressive, rather than strictly literal way.”

Eleven year old Emory dreams of starting the journey to achieve acceptance of his authentic self through winning Reach for the Stars. His confidante Linda also has dreams of entertaining people through stand-up comedy. Her destined date with a chicken packing machine perhaps foreshadows Emory’s future with the entertainment industry.

Elliot dreams of proms and playing with Emory. Nanna presides over the chicken farm where all this dreaming takes place and, caught up in her own mortality, is not one for such ephemeral stuff as fantasy or complexity.

Milk Milk Lemonade is staged in the disappointingly uncreepy St Paul’s Crypt. The disappointment is soon forgotten when it is revealed that the crowd of upright white balloons at the front of the stage are, endearingly, the chickens of the farm. They add an extra dimension of movement as the actors scatter them. They are also very tempting to kick.

Anna Henare, the director and queen of accessible theatre, has cast this show excellently. Jordan Dickson is pleasantly natural in his portrayal of Emory. He performs with real feeling rather than affectation. Phil Grieve is amusing as a blunt and ballsy Nanna who tries to keep Emory safe within her strictures. Rhiana McKay-Stewart is spot on as an earnestly facilitating narrator in a leotard who helpfully points out the important bits of the play.

At first it seems that Richard Huber in a feather filled bra and yellow spandex is the show stealer as Linda, the most eccentric of chickens. He is absolutely stunning in this role and it is worth coming to see the show for his performance alone, even if he does drown out his translator at times.

However, as the show progresses it is Ben McCarthy who emerges as the show stealer. He steadily develops his obscene and troubled boy-down-the-road character into the most complex and vital part of Milk Milk Lemonade’s examination of gender diversity. The subtle way McCarthy does this even manages to transcend the parasitic evil twin living in his thigh. 

This show is definitely one to watch. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer