Ordinary Days
The University of NSW faculty is spread over a very, very wide area and there are no signs to Studio One. Where is it? Passing huge swimming and body-building facilities, shops and eateries, I eventually stumble on the Esme Timbery Creative Practice Lab and am directed down long steps to Studio One in the basement, and a first mention of Ordinary Days. There are no electronic programs working here because, as one student remarks: ‘we’re under a huge pile of bricks’.
Joining the 30-odd members of the audience, mainly students, facing a crudely painted vista of New York, I was prepared to be wildly unimpressed.
But then Yianni Anastasiadis, on electronic piano, started the first notes, and Matthew Dorahy, a strange but very real presence as a dog-walking misfit, sang the first of the evening’s many fine songs by composer Adam Gwon. The university audience sat up.
Danika Rojas as Deb, a perennially dissatisfied student from small town America, is unhappy with her working arrangements, but then she loses her major written work on the streets of New York.
Then there’s Claire, struggling to move on from a past heartbreak. Played with heart by Cassidy Lobb, she is about to share a small flat with her kind-hearted boyfriend, Jason. He, as interpreted by Liam Faulkner-Dimond, is intent on just fitting in with Claire.
Each of the four main characters is given two or three solo numbers that express their inner selves, and before very long members of the small university audience are really enjoying themselves. (Clapping is on the way out, whooping is in.)
The four actors are exceptional and would stand out in just about any company. Cassidy Lobb’s vocals make her a wanted lead in many a show. Matthew Dorahy makes the absolute best of his role, with comedy and personal magnetism: just watch an audience love him. Liam Faulkner-Dimond hits all the right notes, but top marks go to Danika Rojas, whose acting and singing are strikingly powerful.
How these four talented actors came together in this first show for CODA is truly amazing. Congratulations to director Kris Sergi for pulling the strings so deftly.
And to Adam Gwon - composer, lyricist, creator of this small 2008 miracle – many brotherly hugs and handshakes.
Frank Hatherley
Photographer: Isabella Sergi.
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