Swings at Dusk

Let me warn you up front: Swings at Dusk will not appeal to everyone.

You’ll kinda wanna be younger. And feel trapped in the belief of the Baby Boomers and Gen X whereby you need to exchange time for money.

Leaky Bucket gives you a walloping hit of youthful energy mixed a dose of the disengagement of an office drone.

The show is a series of seemingly unrelated sketches that lead you through an imaginative and somewhat absurd landscape, bound by a theme: some Millenials, like their parents, before them, face a lifetime of corporate drudgery instead of freeing themselves to pursue their passions.

The three members of Leaky Bucket, Prue Blake, Matthew McCartney and Darcy Fleming, share a creative dynamic that suits the show.

My favourite was McCartney as the endearing elf, Edgar. Edgar gave up everything (he didn’t have much) to leave his job as an accountant in Santa's basement and apply for his dream job, inventing toys. Without giving anything away, let’s just say poor Edgar is a bit of a one-hit wonder when it comes to toy design.

For the right audience, namely Millenials facing the same career fate as the two generations before them, Swings at Dusk is a playful look at a soul-crushing reality.

Daniel G. Taylor

DanielG. Taylor has written for Stage Whispers since 1994 and lives in Elwood, Victoria, where he works as a mental health copywriter. Learn more at danielgtaylor.com.