This was a perfect performance which deserved a much bigger audience.
'Bare' tells the story of two boys at a private, Catholic boarding school, and their confused, conflicted love. And Jenny Woodward, the weather lady from ABC news is in it and sings, what more could you ask for? On one level, it’s a drama-fuelled plot that could rival any daytime TV soap opera: a secret affair, homophobia, an ignorant mother, a teen pregnancy, body image issues, jealousy, slut-shaming, drugged out raves and unforgiving church doctrine. Somehow, however, the two-hour play makes it work. At its core, it remains a simple love story.
The Understudy Productions cast is young, fresh and pretty bloody perfect. The casting is spot on – Jason, the key love interest and school prince, is cool and suave as he does little winks and chin flicks to his female colleagues. You can see him ruling the schoolyard, but his occasional awkwardness reveals the vulnerability his character needs. The rest of the cast is great too, bitchy and petty and needy and silly, just like any high school group. Their singing and dancing numbers hit all the right notes.
The star of the show, however, was Shaun Kohlman as Peter. His voice carried so much emotion, soaring from booming depths to delicate high notes as Peter’s heart breaks again and again on stage. Together with Jason Bentley’s Jason, love scenes are delivered with conviction and tenderness. At the end, there wasn’t a dry eye in the (packed) house, and the spontaneous standing ovation was a tribute to the soul the cast poured into the story.
Speaking of soul, another shout out must go to Melissa Western for her turn as the class music teacher and nun. This character was the only one to at times pull the audience out of the story, as it is so clearly an American character, whereas all the others are universal and could have easily lived in any Australian suburb. However, Melissa was fantastic. Her singing, dancing and joy were wonderful to watch on stage, and her character was one of the few to not only support Peter, but also humanise the Catholic Church. The Church itself – although not Christian values per se – gets quite the critique in the production, but it again is handled with understanding.
This was a wonderful show, and truly deserved a larger audience. While of course it has a home in a queer festival, and that should be celebrated, it would be nice to see great stories with gay characters also have a place on a larger, more mainstream stage.
