Hell Hath No Fury

Hell Hath No Fury, written, produced and directed by Wayne Tunks, is a solid effort at contemporary theatre and, whilst engaging enough for a mainstream audience, sadly misses the mark in delivering an insightful, bold work.

A theatre space in Revolt Melbourne is transformed into a beauty salon where sixteen female staff and customers are all having relationship woes. Roberta, the salon’s owner, is at the centre of the play. 

The characters are stereotypes: there’s the princess, the street girl, the Asian manicurist, the bitch, the sidekick, the awkward teenager, the cheating voluptuous secretary, the shy office worker, the lesbian, the butch cop, etc.  As you’d expect they all bare their souls and learn something– about themselves, about each other.  Shock factor is at a minimum though as amazingly every single woman’s situation is predictable. 

This play is obviously written by a man.  Tunks sadly doesn’t lift any of the sixteen women to be more than two-dimensional clichés.  The women are so consumed with the men in their lives their existence is defined by them.  They may or may not have children, careers, friends, hobbies, interests, travel adventures (past or future), or anything else of substance to discuss.  Even as side banter.

On this, portraying a popular beauty salon should’ve resulted in lively chit chat: fast paced, women-excitedly-talking-over-one-another babble. In Hell Hath No Fury, energy only comes from two characters, Sammi (Natalie Bond) and Freddie (Stephania Pountney). Lines are laboriously delivered by the others. 

Blocking is limited too.  The actors are too often standing on the same spot. Tunks’ television background, whilst impressive, is exposing at the same time. Limited actions in the theatre cannot be disguised by camera shots and editing.

Despite all this, there are positives to this production.  The set is excellent.  It looks like any beauty salon in any part of Melbourne. Attention to detail is not lost on designer Ryan Hodge.  The audience sits behind the mirror; symbolically we are the reflection into the characters’ souls.  Stage levels aid when all sixteen characters are on stage. 

Additionally the cliffhanger going into interval has a wow factor. By the end of the play you do feel as though you’ve gone on a journey with all sixteen women (though this is partly due to a very ‘talky’ second half).  A surprising song and dance number keeps the audience guessing.  The broad range of characters and situations means the audience can relate to at least one person. It’s also amusing to observe the ‘hairdressers’ do their thing.

The next run for Hell Hath No Fury may be on a major television network – it’s got the feel of television. Bit parts and extras would be well utilised so audiences don’t have to suspend disbelief that the same women visit the same beauty salon every day of the week.

Fluffy but enjoyable enough, Hell Hath No Fury is on at Revolt Melbourne until 24 November.

Tammy Shmerling

Photgrapher:Paul Anthony Nelson