Festen

The play I went to see with Helen last night was called Festen, by David Eldridge (the play was apparently an adaptation from a cult Danish film). The cast was a bit of a who's who... with John Stanton playing the role of the father, Helge, whose 60th birthday celebration formed the backdrop for the play. Julia Blake was his wife. Jason Donovan played Christian, the son, who dropped a bombshell on the evening. Other cast I recognised were Ditch Davey (from Blue Heelers), Kym Gyngell (most infamous for his Col'n Carp'nter character), and there were a few other faces I recognised, but as I was too stingy to buy a program, I can't recall their names.

The play was fairly confronting, both in its content and portrayal -not the least because I think I had exceeded my daily quota of "f*ck"s after the first 5 mins- (although Helen told me that apparently in Danish there are 2 very strong and nassssty swear words that could possibly have been alternated in the original, thus resulting in a slightly less tedious portrayal of anger and violence, but in translating the play to English, the only swear word of adequate potency that would have fit was "f*ck").

The main characters were fantastic (John, Julia and Jase... hey, the three "J"s! :-) and of course Kym Gyngell's character was greatly amusing and beautifully played...

Overall, I enjoyed the play, although I did agree with Helen that in a few places, the writing left a little to be desired, and that as with the overuse of the "F" word, they had also overdone the use of loudness and shouting to portray violence between some of the characters.

It was great to get out to some live theatre again- it seems like ages since I last went to a play- so that was great...

Roll on Melbourne Festival! :-)

Did I mention that I am enjoying living in Melbourne? :-)