Theatre review: EONN-ic elections

Published on Wednesday 19 August 2009 18:52

EONN-IC ECLECTIONS

THE SPACE ON THE MILE @ JURY'S INN (VENUE 260)

THIS trio of short, shoestring-budget plays from Australia's EONN-ic company are a thematically mixed bunch, but each is assuredly carried off, and get to the point quickly, making for a good-value 45 minutes.

First, in Kate Toon's Mulv, the quartet of performers enact a pitch-black comedy about a gang of marketing executives who are deciding how to sell the foodstuff of the title, a green meat substitute made of human flesh. This single-act piece is, believe it or not, the lightest of the three.

The next, Steven Hapley's Spots, is highly stylised but bluntly efficient in its cynical portrait of human instinct. In darkness, the four actors stand lit from above by a head torch. One by one, they plead for help as red circles swoop from the darkness and carry them off screaming; one by one, their friends nervously debate the merits of putting themselves in harm's way.

Finally, Toon's The Badger Game is the strongest piece, a short, multi-act play about Jean Lee (Emanda Percival), the last woman to be hanged in Victoria, Australia. It's a sharp, emotionally brutal shock, and Nicholas David Whyatt's portrayal of Lee's mercenary lover steals not just this final play, but the entire show.

DAVID POLLOCK

Until 22 August. Today 6:30pm.