The Short + Sweet theatre festival is bite-sized chunks of goodness, with all performances featured under ten minutes.
Celebrating its ninth year here in Brisbane, Short + Sweet 2017 is showcasing the work of over 200 artists with audience favourites being sent through to the Gala Finals. The Short + Sweet Festival proves that great, moving and funny performances can happen very quickly.
The opening week extravaganza performance is staged in two halves: the first is a range of seven mini-plays, and then after the break, an expanded version of last year’s festival winner 'Boys Taste Better With Nutella' by Caitlin Hill and Peter Wood.
The shorter offerings are seven festival favourites from previous years, to whet the audience appetite for this season’s new shows. Each act is different, there is no connecting thread running through them, which makes for a really refreshing and entertaining night. You have no idea what is coming next.
From modern dance, to a choose-you-own-adventure style play, there is very much something for everyone. Particular standouts were 'The Roasting' by the The Pouszky Collective and 'The Confession' by Emily Vascotto. Both of these acts were vibrant, performed to an extremely high professional standard, and completely nutty in a terrifying way.
In 'The Roasting', two women sit side-by-side, one at a job interview, the other welcoming a new person to the neighbourhood. Through their choreographed movements and language, a very dark and manic pathos emerges. Valium is required after this performance, the impact the creators manage to pack into ten minutes is truly impressive.
'The Confession' is equally disturbing, with the bright and cheery girl singing on stage confessing to her penchant for stalking men. With just the right combination of raunch, deranged facial expressions and a winning grin, there were surely a few males in the audience who were tempted by her offer to meet up at the bar after the show, to hell with the potential consequences.
Of course, the evening standout was last year’s winning performance, 'Boys Taste Better With Nutella'. In this expanded version, we meet two best friends who use food to compensate for loneliness. Frederick seeks attention and approval from people on the internet and becomes despondent when trolled. Aggy seeks love in the real world, moulding her personality to suit the newest sub-par suitor and turning to the chocolaty goodness for comfort whenever they leave her. This is a wonderful, enchanting and very polished play, which leaves you wanting to become BFFs forever with both characters (and give them some tough love about life choices). Go see it immediately.
The Short + Sweet Festival offers an introduction to Queensland’s best emerging theatrical talent. It’s fun, it’s zany, it’s not to be missed.
