Fringe Review: WRATH
As the Melbourne Fringe Festival continues to imprint its prominence for the 2019-year, WRATH, a work of Liam Maguire presented at the state’s Trades Hall, emerges as a striking yet intelligent piece of theatre. Bolstered by a satirical and absurdly attractive narrative, expressive acting performances and a unique stage design, this instalment for the annual festival offers an enticing experience for its audience – where we are ultimately pulled into the wrath of corporate calamity, chaos, confusion and all the hair existing between.
It’s always pleasurable to witness effective storytelling within the theatre space. And for WRATH, it sure managed to deliver on this request. But how do we unpack this success? Let’s give it a go:
A distinctive tale that, in addition to straying to the absurd, maintained an effective comical backbone through its depiction of the ‘dog-eat-dog world’ reality. Through merging the notions of workplace conflict, societal status, the whodunit? mystery along with a hint of suspected romance, there was never boredom in the unfolding events - continually prompting us as the audience to beg the question of “What will happen next?”
To accompany the powerful storytelling, the production of WRATH saw an array of strong acting talent. In particular, bodily movement and facial expressions were bold, exaggerated and humorous, often culminating in striking and electric tableaus to complete each scene. For all six performers - Cece Peters, Roy Joseph, Lou Wall, Jonny Hawkins, Elle Mickel and Adam Sollis - praise must be given for the energy and radiating characterisation in all moments. A particular favourite scene was a heated board meeting held early on in the story, where colourful and cartoonish voices and movement left audiences in hysterics.
The staging of the production is also worthy of discussion. Moving away from the common theatrical stage set-up of seating leading to a stage, WRATH’s corridor stage design (which was nestled between two sides of seating) was effective. Most prominently, the design aided in representing the notion of the audience as the walls of the room, therefore becoming the entrapper of events and consequential catalyst for mayhem. Furthermore, the set-up allowed for some interesting spatial movement from the actors, switching attention between both sets of audiences in swift and creative and manners.
It’s an odd experience to walk out of a theatre space amused, perplexed and inquisitive all at the same time. But in the case of WRATH, it was this chaotic combination of feelings by the narrative’s competition which aided in the fascination of the production. It’s a wild journey from start to finish, but definitely a worthwhile one. Where will it take you?
WRATH is currently showcasing at the Melbourne Trades Hall until September 22. You can find more details about the production here.