Reviews

It’s a play about ‘Hollywood’.  The ‘bone’ in question is a low-budget movie already in production.  The ‘dogs’ are four competing and very self-interested parties: the fading lead actress, Collette (Tania Knight), the beset producer, Bradley (Kostas Ilias), the ambitious ingenue (does anyone say ‘ingenue’ anymore?) Brenda (Xanthe Gunner) and the ‘sensitive’ writer, Victor (William Atkinson).  Bradley’s problems, apart from wrangling these people and a painful anal problem, is that it’s a seven-mill

Sister Winnie’s regular Guiness and singalong evening with middle-aged guitarist Stephen is abruptly shattered when 15-year-old Kayleigh hurls a brick through the front window of the nun’s house in the deprived Yorkshire seaside town of Withernsea. There’s nowt so queer as Folk, as the saying goes, and playwright Tom Wells takes pleasure in introducing us to three of the queerest, most mismatched characters ever to share space in the same play.

As brilliant a wordsmith as he was and as intriguing as his stories may be, Billy's oeuvre isn't for everyone. It's a veritable brain banquet when done well or downright baffling in the wrong hands. And the more our vernacular changes, the less accessible he becomes. Little wonder then, that some companies choose to specialise in his works, to keep honing and reinvigorating the genre.

What an interesting, intriguing and absorbing play this really is. We follow the path of discovery - really re-discovery – of indigenous singer Barbara, who is singing with her band The Camp Dogs at some lowly gig  as she seeks out close family in Darwin and then Katherine. She is joined by sister Rene, also a singer, on the long motor bike trip. This was not only about the physical distance travelled but the even longer emotional one as they go back into the past of their family life and their people’s history.