Mature Skin

Who would have expected a play about shame and the sometimes tortured relationships we have with our bodies to be funny?  It so was! The audience laughed out loud during much of the play.

It features an affair between an older sexually ambiguous male, and a generationally younger transgender woman. The relationship between the two begins quickly and rapidly escalates leading to an explosion of mutual exploration. Their continued relationship is fuelled by physical desire and cutting verbal play and set alight by unresolved emotional pain.

Bailey Ackling Beecham (Jasmine) and Peter Paltos (Paul) use the dense, fine script to craft characters painfully working their way through past traumas, current angst and unattained dreams. While Peter is a successful scent creator and Jasmine works as a casual in Melbourne Central, Jasmine is the more independent and active. Paul’s loneliness traps him in his need for company which Jasmine exploits.

They use anything they can to find a way to express their value, sexuality and physical presence. Their manoeuvres are funny, poignant and sometimes shocking. They expose the mostly negative impact of their broader social environment and the unrelenting pressure to conform to established norms.

The play is set within a rectangular frame with a long central bench which effectively transforms into many spaces. The lighting, sound and costume design add without intrusion.

The play juggles identity, desire, need and inequality to thrillingly critique society’s pressures on individuals.

Ruth Richter

Photographer: Gregory Lorenzutti