The Beast

At first blush it felt like Eddie Perfect had bitten off more than he could chew. The Beast is black comedy which starts on a fishing expedition gone wrong, where desperate hungry friends eye off their recently departed skipper, then shifts to the worst middle class dinner party imaginable, brim full of pretention.

Yet once you settle into the ride there are plenty of delicious morsels to feast on. The different flavours are acute. Whilst the lost fishermen search desperately for land, their delirious skipper can’t stop babbling about Sydney real estate prices.  At the dinner party there is both erudite analysis of vineyard flavours and also ball twisting slapstick.

The centrepiece of the dinner party is, as the logo for the play indicates, a cow. The friends have gathered to slaughter the grain fed organic beast, but things go desperately wrong. It you are vegan then this play is not likely to please.  Even carnivores might be a little squeamish at the bloody end of the first act.

The second act is must easier to digest, helped by the exceptional cast. The Beast was originally staged by the Melbourne Theatre company in 2013. This production has a new cast and production team. Eddie Perfect joked that he had to audition for a role in his own play. Thank goodness Director Simon Phillips cast him the nicest part – the sweet and insecure character of Baird. His repartee with fellow diner Sue (Heidi Arena), over the merits of lettuce, is both hilarious and fiendishly clever.

Skilfully playing Simon, the complete arsehole at the dinner party, is Rohan Nichol. His long suffering wife Gen, Christie Whelan Browne gets several moments to shine and does not miss them - in particular, her re-enactment of her husband’s infidelity at the dinner party.

Perhaps the best acting part went to Peter Houghton who gets to play a crazy skipper, a farmer and a mansitter.

What box do you put a play like this in? Is it Theatre of the Absurd or a black social satire with extra bite? Audiences can be the judge. But Bravo to the Ambassador Theatre Group for taking the incredibly rare step of touring a large cast Australian-written play.

David Spicer

Images: (L-R) Alison Bell and Eddie Perfect, & (L-R) Christie Whelan Browne and Toby Truslove. Photographer: Ken Nakanishi.