Up the Guts at KXT

Up the Guts at KXT

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Posted 2019-05-15 by Emma Jane Explores (Emma Caldwell)follow

Tue 14 May 2019 - Sat 18 May 2019

Up The Guts forms part of the final double bill in Jackrabbit Theatre's HiJacked season at KXT. Up the Guts is the second play in the double bill, following on from Jonny Hawkins' wonderful reading of Maureen: The Harbinger of Death.

Written by Jane Mahady and Suzannah Kennett Lister, Up the Guts asks the audience "do people make a place, or place a people?" Performed by Mahady, this play is a giant monologue of place and people, with Mahady narrating and taking on different characters throughout the work.



The premise is simple. June is a young actor embarking on a theatre tour of Australia performing Shakespeare to children. As she travels around, ever optimistic, she encounters places and people so foreign to her city upbringing and theatre training that force her to consider her place in the world.

In the show's publicity, it's stated that "Up the Guts launches an unexpected assault on Australia's calcified national mythology". For me, assault is far to strong a word for this piece of theatre. Mahady is pleasant and engaging, and at times I'm completely enthralled in her perky characterisation of this eye-opening tour around our sunburnt country.

Unfortunately, I felt the piece didn't delve deep enough or have enough of a point of view to be provocative. Being that this is a brand new piece of theatre, some development and work shopping needs to be done to really find the heart of the show.

That said, the writing by Mahady and Kennett Lister is strong and Up The Guts has all the feels of an epic poem with imagery both visceral and energetic. Mahady is a strong performer, and inherently likeable, so I look forward to what she does next.

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!date 14/05/2019 -- 18/05/2019
%wnsydney
118937 - 2023-06-12 21:03:45

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