OBSERVER: A Nighttime Travesty
The musical theatre show A Nightime Travesty, which played at The Malthouse, was a wild rollercoaster of a ride.
It had some great music and songs but, while applaudable for its bold efforts at providing provocative challenging theatre, was ultimately a failed experiment.
In an apocalyptic end-of-days scenario two flight attendants, Angel (played by Carly Sheppard) and Alexa (Kamari Bell-Wykes), are aboard the last flight to ever leave a devastated Earth on the brink of environmental collapse.
As they attempt to get the flight airborne and cater to the needs of a few sundry passengers, our fearless attendants deal with all manner of bizarre situations.
The script was written/created by Bell-Wykes and Sheppard, with sound design credited to small sound and Richie Brownlee. The latter was more successful as the show was peppered with wonderful songs, music and soundscapes leading to some affecting moments of tenderness and despair.
Unfortunately the script, anarchic in style and involving elements of absurdism, bawdy slapstick and vaudeville, was only occasionally successful in either amusing the audience or giving them a genuine sense of dread as to how this had all come to pass.
Both main performers, Bell-Wykes and Sheppard, had a wonderful madcap energy about them totally suited to the anarchic nature of the script.
Sheppard in particular was most arresting when she sang. They were ably assisted by Peter Wykes and Zach Blampied who played smaller roles.
Musicians small sound and Matt Pana brought the musical score to life in a marvellous fashion.
Stephen Nicolazzo directed and kept things moving at a cracking pace. Importantly though he also allowed for moments of silence and calm amidst the madness which gave the show variety in its tempo and improved its ability to capture the audience.
A Nightime Travesty was then an ambitious mishmash of styles and genres of theatre, sometimes succeeding but more often failing, in spite of its spirited performers and musicians.
Review by Peter Murphy