Tinderbox (Owl & Cat) – theatre review

Provocative. Intense. Disturbing.  In Tinderbox you are up close and personal, witnessing the highs and lows (especially the latter) of a nine-month relationship between a pair of 20-somethings that unravels before your very eyes. Violence and mental torment, jealousy and hatred are the stock in trade. There is also tenderness and intimacy, flirtation and ecstasy, unfortunately all too short lived.

The Owl and Cat Theatre is staging the world premiere of this new work from American playwright Allan Hayhurst. Direction is from Thomas Ian Doyle, who is also responsible for lighting, sound and set design, which he really nails.

The opening is particularly confronting and sets the scene for the subsequent toing and froing from present day to episodes in this couple’s past. In other words, the storyline isn’t linear, rather a jigsaw puzzle that allows us – the audience – to assemble details of just what has gone down. The narrative trawls through how Alice (Fiona Scarlett) and Cameron (Khisraw Jones-Shukoor) got together and what drove them apart. They work in the same business, at different outlets of a chain of juice bars – he an aspiring actor and she keen on preaching the benefits of healthy lifestyle choices. Both are prone to fits of pique and violent outbursts, but he is clearly far more physically powerful than she. The intensity of the action is such that you dare not look away for even a second.

One of the cleverest scenes involves a simple prop, namely a pillow that appears at an appropriate juncture from above the stage. It is a reflection of far happier times, when Cameron and Alice were lusting for one another. But this is far from the only time the staging impresses.

As Alice reveals her back story (and she has certainly had a colourful past), it is dealt with in a matter of moments with a prerecorded video montage that appears on the back wall of the theatre. I thought it a marvelous visual cue. And then there is a time when the duo literally takes its verbal jousting out of the theatre and onto the street immediately outside. A touch of brilliance there.  The performances are hard to forget, especially that of the leading lady.

My only slight criticism of Tinderbox concerns the fact that physical manifestations of mental illness, while verbalised, were hardly seen (save for a scene very late in the piece). The show includes violent interactions, nudity and two simulated sex scenes. Not for the feint-hearted, this is raw, primal and engaging theatre with a critically important theme at a time when violence against women is squarely in the public spotlight … just as it should be.

Tinderbox is playing at The Owl and Cat Theatre (Swan St, Richmond, Melbourne) until 30th January.

Alex First