In her incredibly well-constructed debut solo show, 'HOUSE', Bea Barbeau-Scurla invites the audience to join her in unpacking the memories of her traumatic childhood.
Things get dark fairly early on, with an exquisite Ivan Milat joke truly setting the tone of things to come. The placement of this joke – and a few others early on – provide a great yardstick to the crowd. Bea gives people a chance to ‘leave now’ if it wasn’t their thing – nobody does – perhaps at times people do, but the crowd stays on and the story begins to unfold.
Bea is an enthralling storyteller and 'HOUSE' provides her with a fantastic story to tell. The show has a clear and engaging through line that makes the 50-minute show just fly past. The material is heavy; it goes to some pretty dark places and while Bea is able to make jokes of almost all aspects that she explores, the nature of the material mean that the content might not be broadly relatable at all times.
The show delves into topics relating to depression, the many forms of therapy, difficult mother-daughter relationships, and a few gentle touches on eating disorders – the content doesn’t exactly match the after-work crowd 5.15pm time slot. If you can find something to connect to in the material, the comedy will sit incredibly well with you – one particular scenario she explored mirrored a situation my friends and I had recently gone through, and to put it bluntly, we lost our sh.t. Bea has a way of brilliant way of pulling the heavy moments into the light and making them shine, but without universal appeal, these somewhat niche moments may be lost on certain audiences.
Bea is charming and knows how to work a crowd, 'HOUSE' is a wonderful show, albeit one that you might need to grab a drink and talk about after – or if alcohol isn’t your thing, maybe hug a friend.
While the show does offer comfort and hope very much in the form of Bea herself, make sure you’re in the mood for something heavy before proceeding through the front door of Bea Barbeau-Scurla’s 'HOUSE'.
