Work Space

A chance to feel like you are part of a studio audience for a fun and funny show where your laughter is vital, as this work is actually a ‘Sit Com’ destined to be uploaded on to You Tube.

I have two disclaimers in relation to this show.  Firstly I won the raffle and what a prize, a big box of Favorites!  Yes! 

My second and perhaps most important disclaimer is that I studied Theatre and Drama in the heady hey days when Geoffrey Milne ran that department at La Trobe University with all three of the main players in this work.  Having done so I am acutely aware of the intrinsic and very individual talent they each have.  I have huge respect for these guys and love their courage.

Work Space is a clever and funny situation comedy built on the interaction of three characters working on their own, obscure, projects in a shared Work Space. Like a dance choreographed on specific dancers bodies ,Robert Reid, as writer, has melded this work in conjunction with Verity Charlton and Elliot Summers. As performers they are all quite evidently having fun with performing some whacky ideas along with knowing and trusting each-other.  Incorporated is that great sense of joy that exudes when actors are ‘just loving’ play-acting together.

This week audiences are treated to episodes one and two and next week episodes three and four.  All episodes are to be uploaded onto you tube.  If you want to get a better idea of what this show is like – then like Workspace on Facebook.  In this way you will also be supporting the exciting future of this innovative/reinvigorated concept of turning Theatre into TV/You Tube.

Actors Verity Charlton (Vaughan) and Elliot Summers (Eddy) are always engaging to watch.  Verity, who is able to commit herself to strange and bemusing realities, never seems to take herself to seriously as an actor and can play characters such as Vaughan, who experiences a rich gamut of emotions that often ‘turn on a pin’. 

Rob Reid, as author of works that have been produced by Melbourne Theatre Company, is a gifted an intellectual writer whose work can err towards the highly cerebral.  This can be hugely satisfying – depending on one’s perspective.  Sometimes his complex and layered ideas can require concentration and unraveling.  This is something Peita Collard skillfully achieved as director of Reid’s clever and probing work The Joy of Text for La Mama in 2013.

Work Space is highly recommended as a refreshing and unique treat in this years Comedy Festival.

What will Reid think of next?

Suzanne Sandow