Canary

Isabella Perversi is an interesting performer – her background is in Fine Art and Music at Melbourne’s VCA& Conservatorium, and her CV is an eclectic mix of dance (most recently for Opera Australia), film and TV – including performing in self-penned and self-produced shorts and plays at the Melbourne Fringe Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Fresh from Melbourne’s Fringe Rebound, she has worked with Mad Hatter Films (with Ross Dwyer on camera) to record her one-woman show Canary for online viewing. As the lone character, Isabella commands the stage for just over half an hour in a monologue that reveals the challenges of modern feminism and sexuality. Is hers a Millennial ‘canary’ in the toxic test-bed of growing up with the echoes of #MeToo? In her workplace, she is barely in control, distracted by the touchy-feely attentions of Nick, the CEO’s son. She blames herself. It’s her personality: she’s polite and she laughs at his jokes. Besides, she confesses, she kind of likes it. And she needs the job. It’s a high-pressure world where money and aspirational work plans – the CEO who spends most of her time on the beach on holidays – get in the way of any real human connections. And even fellow female employees are unsupportive and ambitious, leading her to become fractious yet fragile. She is definitely off kilter: still living with her sister, Marney, in the family home. Her parents absent, and we assume either moved or passed on. Marney’s relationship with her ‘new babe’, Byron – ‘he watches Love Island – the Aussie version!’ – is her only barometer for ‘love’. She has lost her instinct for choosing a suitable partner. She soldiers on, preferring busy workplace to confronting her chaotic private life and uncomfortable childhood memories. Yet it is her love of her sister that recalibrates her feelings and, we assume, sets her sights on flying out of the coalmine to a better existence at the end.

Directed by Emma Gough, with dramaturg support by Emma Fawcett, this is a strong piece, sharply steered for its duration. The simple stage set – a chair and a red floor strewn with crumpled paper and a white bed sheet – hint at a woman’s world of spilled drinks, sticky floors, one-night stands, fake orgasms, morning-after pills, period pains and unwanted pregnancies. The Boohoo fashion wardrobe makes for a suitable costume for the piece. The script is serious yet full of humour, and the online audience enjoyed many laughs throughout. Marney, Nick and other characters appeared courtesy of a recorded soundtrack supplied by Gabriel Bethune on lighting and sound. Unfortunately, there is sometimes distortion when Isabella’s character expresses her rage and frustration. But perhaps this could be tweaked in a final mix?

Canary will appeal to audiences who may be navigating their own way through young adulthood. And it certainly marks its maker out as a talent to watch for the future.

Beth Keehn

Photographer: Nick Robertson