Holden Street Theatres Adelaide Fringe 2009

Scarborough

by Fiona Evans

Directed by Martha Lott as part of Holden Street Theatres’ Directors’ Choice Season 09

“SCARBOROUGH is intimate theatre at its most proximate. Almost like pieces of furniture, the audience shares a tiny bedroom with the two cast members. They hug the walls or sit in the corner while, mainly on the bed, the tense saga of the PE teacher and her student evolves.

It is an illicit tryst, one fraught with danger and heartbreak. This is a beautifully written piece – tight, taut and quite short. Director Martha Lott has been ingenious in the use of this unusual space and in keeping the mood quiet electric between the two protagonists.

Emily Branford and Sebastian Freeman thrust and parry, play and analyse through the emotional gamut – and onerealises that one is so enmeshed in their predicament that one has become more fly-on-the-wall than audience.”

★★★★★ - The Advertiser

“This is a piece that will leave you thinking, and whose emotional force will not leave you easily.” - Arts Hub

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The Tailor of Inverness

Written and Performed by Matthew Zajac Directed by Ben Harrison

WINNER of the Holden Street Theatres Edinburgh Award, bringing the best of Edinburgh Fringe to Adelaide

“The Tailor of Inverness is a one-man show, written and performed by Matthew Zajac, and it tells the story of Mateusz Zajac, a Polish tailor who fought in the Polish army, was captured by the Nazis, escaped and set about a lengthy journey that led ultimately to freedom in Scotland. A white sheet, scrunched and coloured at the edges provides a flexible backdrop for maps that detail the tailor’s journey, surtitles, and images that complement Zajac’s performance and Gavin Marwick sensitively accompanies his storytelling on a violin.

Zajac has a strong connection with this tailor’s tale because it is the story of his father; he tells it with conviction and flair as he smoothly transforms character, time and place, speaking in numerous languages. Zajac cleverly uses a clothing rack, a tailor’s dummy and various pieces of clothing to become the other characters in his father’s world.

The Tailor of Inverness is exactly the kind of show one hopes to experience in a Fringe festival. Simply but imaginatively staged and convincingly performed by a skilled actor whose character portrayal is warm and entertaining”. - Greg Elliott, Independent Weekly

★★★★★ - The Advertiser