Beautiful Burnout

Beautiful Burnout
By Bryony Lavery. Sydney Festival, National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly. Seymour Centre (NSW). Jan 18 - 29

Beautiful Burnout, produced in collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly, is an interesting look in to the world of boxing.

For a sport that has many maligned preconceptions Bryony Lavery’s script attempts to pull the audience into the boxing ring and show why such a brutal sport has a large and devoted fan-base.

The story focuses on a small clutch of boxing hopefuls who are being trained by the one and only Bobby Burgess (Ewan Stewart). The four are eager to prove themselves and of course there is a pecking order with the top dog Ajay Chopra (Taqi Nazeer) pushing to turn pro.

As expected though the young Ajay is seen to be too big for his boots and is unceremoniously chucked out of Burgess’s gym, paving the way for young buck Cameron (Kevin Guthrie) to slip into star position.

Meanwhile, Cameron’s mother Carlotta (Blythe Duff) tries to assuage her fears over her son’s choice of career by being overly attentive. However any protests from Carlotta are overshadowed by the glamour of the “ring” and in a creatively executed climax the big match between Ajay and Cameron plays out with tragic circumstances.

By and large the performances are impressive and each actor obviously studied the sport in preparation. However, the overall story seemed to be a bit two-dimensional because so much emphasis was put on the choreography and movement of the show.

Directors Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett’s vision for this show was strong and had some surprising elements, but overall Beautiful Burnout did not burn as brightly as I hoped it would.

Whitney Fitzsimmons.

Photographer: Gavin Evans.

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