“In the end we’re all just sinew and instinct.”
The Blood Moon Theatre has made its claim as a promising venue for Sydney Fringe this year, with many new works premiering here as part of the festival. The second show appearing in their Fringe season is M. Saint Clair’s original new play, Everyone I’ve Ever Loved Or Slept With Or Both; a poignant collection of very honest, very relatable vignettes of the feelings and vulnerability around sex, intimacy and self awareness.
The work is to be praised for its writing above all else; beautiful, sensory and poetic dialogue creates the worlds and innermost private fears of these characters in the restricted performance space. Melissa Hume gives a standout, most energised performance and is captivating to watch in her physicality and adoption of each character. Eleni Cassimatis is compelling, authentic and fierce; complemented by the gentle and awkward sincerity captured by Oliver Harris.
The design is simple and works well in the space with a muted but uniform palette in the costumes of each character and a clean effective lighting design. The swelling soundscape, whilst intended to support the work and sense of rising tension was far too loud for the intimate venue. This became a problem for audience engagement with the work, unable to hear the more intimate and controlled moments of the play. This is a minor technical note that once addressed, would have allowed the emotive soundscape to achieve its purpose.
Ran at Blood Moon Theatre From September 4 – 8th
M. Osborn – Theatre Now
