Reviews

When writing a good script, there is one rule…revise, revise, revise. That’s where I have a problem with this Adelaide Fringe show. Although I sat through 20 scenes in 2 hours I still had no clue what the writer was trying to accomplish with her wordy and rather self-indulgent dialogue.

Kate Burbeck wrote and produced this play and delivered 90 percent of the show’s lines as protagonist Kate. Whilst she attempted to be philosophical, as an audience member I was left bewildered by the lack of structure and ambiguous storyline.

David Hare is such a master playwright in his sublime ability to blend ideas and philosophical debate into the flesh and blood of real characters.  The Judas Kiss is a deeply moving and thoughtful rendition of the night Oscar Wilde refuses to run from his imprisonment and, in the second act, some years later in Naples, how he negotiates his ruin.

This production evokes a time that’s gone but not forgotten. Louise Seger (played with vivacity by Mandi Lodge) tells of how she became a fan of Patsy Cline, first by hearing her songs on the radio and calling the DJ to ask for the them to be played again, and then how she met Patsy Cline at a concert and how their friendship developed. Her descriptions almost make you see the workmates and friends she’s with, and the house she lives in and of course, her much-loved automobile.

Lachlan Philpot continues to make theatre that cuts edges in both style and subject matter. In this play, based on the story of Harry Crawford (born Eugenia Falleni, also known as Eugene Falleni and Jean Ford) a female-to-male transgender man convicted in 1920 of the murder of his first wife, Annie Birkett, Philpott imagines the complexities of sustaining such a secret and the constant threat of what exposure might bring.