Accidently Ugly

What do you fear? Spiders? Witches? The Boogey Man? How closely are your fears associated with appearances? A warty nose, a hunched back, a gappy smile, eight hairy legs and too many eyes?

Using Oscar Wilde’s tale, The Selfish Giant as its centrepiece, Accidently Ugly pursues the connections we make between what we find ugly and therefore fear. Perhaps looking closely at a creature we find to be ugly will reveal intricate detail, just as looking beyond a person’s appearance reveals deeper truths.

With a cast aged between 5 and 12 years, some hearing impaired and profoundly deaf, images of spooky trees, kids with torches in their tents, night sounds, and ghostly stories are brought to mind. Notions of transformation are carried into junkyard inspired set. Perhaps you think the cardboard box is ugly, but look what we have created from it. Perhaps the giant is scary, but he is brought to tears by children’s singing.

Lines are either recorded or spoken off-stage. Unfortunately these were quite difficult to decipher at times, and occasionally distorted, and I didn’t make the connection between the theme and the submarine appearances.

That said, the manipulation of set and effective lighting were good, and audience participation measures, including bubble blowers for all, had the almost capacity, and family orientated audience engaged.

Here’s a company that takes inclusivity and access seriously, with braille indented business cards, Auslan performers and facilitators for the workshop process, and a clearly articulated belief that performance is as much about process as it is about product. And there is nothing ugly or accidental about that!

Lucy Graham

Photographer: Pia Johnson.