3 Seeds

Always Working Artists' 3 Seeds is a collection of three short plays by Afeif Ismail, a Perth playwright originally from Sudan, written originally from Sudan. Written initially in Arabic, they have been transcreated by Vivienne Glance, for local meaning and nuance.

The three plays are seemingly unrelated, with very different performance styles and very diverse story lines, but there is a linking theme of birth and creation and perhaps the influence of Samuel Beckett.

In Godot's Labyrinth, we meet Godot over the history of time - as an astronaut, as a Bedouin, as a disabled person and as a creator of life. A highly poetic piece, with political resonance, it is performance poetry on steroids, with highly visual interludes. It is movingly performed vocally by Janice Lim, Verity Softly and Kevin Mararo Wangai and feature Violette Ayad.

Why Rats Live Under Our Roof is a complete change of pace. Set in African village, located somewhere on a Vaudeville stage, it feels like an African folktale and could almost be children's theatre, if not for the liberal swearing, crude jokes and reasonably graphic childbirth sequence. Verity Softly (Monkey) and Brianna Williams (Rat) work beautifully with the audience to tell a folktale about The First Mother (Michelle Endersbee), First Father (Kevin Mararo Wangai ) and First Child (Violette Ayad).

After interval we again have a huge change of style, with the wordless One Seed presented with dedication and intensity by Violette Ayad and Paul Grabovac. Dreamlike and almost Stream of Conscious in its approach, its meaning is not always clear, but the drive and belief of the performers make it easy to watch.

3 Seeds is not for everyone, there was a small exodus at interval (to my surprise), but it is interesting and entertaining and worth seeing, for its difference from the usual, for the pleasure of seeing Jeremy Rice direct in Perth, for the strength of the performances and for the fascinating and varied writing of Afeif Ismail.

Kimberley Shaw