{"id":157364,"date":"2024-06-06T00:25:37","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T14:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/?p=157364"},"modified":"2024-06-07T14:49:54","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T04:49:54","slug":"blackout-songs-red-stitch-actors-theatre-theatre-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/blackout-songs-red-stitch-actors-theatre-theatre-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackout Songs (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre) – theatre review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Addiction unplugged. The rollercoaster. Ecstatic. Imaginative. Outrageous. Vitriolic. Sexually charged. Ugly. Brutal. Destructive. Deadly.\u00a0So is the relationship with the bottle explored in Joe White\u2019s no holds barred drama Blackout Stories.\u00a0Alice is gregarious, demonstrative and creative \u2013 the life of a party. She drinks and her mind is like a sieve. She constructs colourful stories.\u00a0She spots Charlie \u2013 an artist, a good-looking man, all but monosyllabic, stuttering, in a neck brace \u2013 at an AA meeting.\u00a0She begins speaking to him \u2026 chatting him up. She could talk the leg off a chair.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photos by James Reiser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thereafter, we get to hear parts of their respective back stories and we follow their circuitous journey.\u00a0She writes poetry, or at least she used to.\u00a0She doesn\u2019t have a real connection with her father.\u00a0She was sent to a Catholic boarding school at the age of 6 and had her first drink, the communion wine, when she was 12.\u00a0He is an often self-loathing painter who is out of control. His drinking causes hallucinations. He is prone to lashing out.\u00a0The pair forms a connection.\u00a0He falls quickly and hard for her. Although she is reluctant to admit it, she too is invested.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Time passes. They spend years falling in and out of each other\u2019s lives.\u00a0They binge drink. They try to break their respective alcohol addiction, only to fall off the wagon, time and again.\u00a0Truth be told, they aren\u2019t the same people when they are sober. He is responsible, but dull. She is just dull.\u00a0However, when he drinks to excess the end game is catastrophic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joe White well captures the vicious cycle of addiction, bringing with it the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.\u00a0He looks at what it can and does do to individuals and relationships, and in that regard, it is far from pretty.\u00a0What he has crafted looks and feels real.\u00a0Interspersed with often deliberately unfocused video imagery of Alice and Charlie, and a searing soundtrack, Sarah Sutherland and Jack Twelvetree excel.\u00a0They are totally credible as they morph into the characters they play.\u00a0They excite and collide. They love hard and detest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sutherland is a bundle of unbridled, unfocused energy.\u00a0Twelvetree is a picture of self-destruction, desperately trying to make good.\u00a0Blackout Songs is no fairy story with a neatly packaged, happily ever after ending.\u00a0Rather, it is brutally honest and compelling theatre. It would be a fair description to say that the truth often hurts \u2026 and how!\u00a0One hundred minutes without interval, Blackout Songs, directed by Tom Healey, is on at Red Stitch Theatre in St Kilda until 30th<\/sup> June, 2024.<\/p>\n

Alex First<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Addiction unplugged. The rollercoaster. Ecstatic. Imaginative. Outrageous. Vitriolic. Sexually charged. Ugly. Brutal. Destructive. Deadly.\u00a0So is the relationship with the bottle explored in Joe White\u2019s no holds barred drama Blackout Stories.\u00a0Alice is gregarious, demonstrative and creative \u2013 the life of a party. She drinks and her mind is like a sieve. She constructs colourful stories.\u00a0She spots…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":157365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[801],"tags":[130,10225,3,3231,10224],"class_list":["post-157364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theatre","tag-addiction","tag-blackout-songs","tag-drama","tag-red-stitch-theatre","tag-sarah-sutherland-jack-twelvetree"],"yoast_head":"\nBlackout Songs (Red Stitch Actors' Theatre) - theatre review -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/blackout-songs-red-stitch-actors-theatre-theatre-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blackout Songs (Red Stitch Actors' Theatre) - theatre review -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Addiction unplugged. The rollercoaster. Ecstatic. Imaginative. Outrageous. Vitriolic. Sexually charged. Ugly. Brutal. Destructive. Deadly.\u00a0So is the relationship with the bottle explored in Joe White\u2019s no holds barred drama Blackout Stories.\u00a0Alice is gregarious, demonstrative and creative \u2013 the life of a party. She drinks and her mind is like a sieve. 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I speak of an older man leaving his long-term wife for a younger woman. In this case, it is a feted journalist married to a writer \u2013 a poet,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Theatre"","block_context":{"text":"Theatre","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/theatre\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/rsz_dsc08423-enhanced-nr.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/rsz_dsc08423-enhanced-nr.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/rsz_dsc08423-enhanced-nr.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/rsz_dsc08423-enhanced-nr.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":138169,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/iphigenia-in-splott-red-stitch-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":157364,"position":3},"title":"Iphigenia in Splott (Red Stitch Theatre)","author":"Alex First","date":"June 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"What an ordeal!\u00a0If Iphigenia in Splott is tough to watch because of the material it covers, just imagine what it would be like for the lone actor on stage who gives one of the greatest performances I have seen.\u00a0It is 90 minutes of dense verbiage, accented and delivered at a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Theatre"","block_context":{"text":"Theatre","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/theatre\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/rsz_red_stitch_-_iphigenia_in_splott_-_credit_-_jodie_hutchinson_-_6-2.jpg?fit=800%2C607&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/rsz_red_stitch_-_iphigenia_in_splott_-_credit_-_jodie_hutchinson_-_6-2.jpg?fit=800%2C607&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/rsz_red_stitch_-_iphigenia_in_splott_-_credit_-_jodie_hutchinson_-_6-2.jpg?fit=800%2C607&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/rsz_red_stitch_-_iphigenia_in_splott_-_credit_-_jodie_hutchinson_-_6-2.jpg?fit=800%2C607&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":170263,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/anna-x-at-red-stitch-actors-theatre-theatre-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":157364,"position":4},"title":"Anna X, at Red Stitch Actors\u2019 Theatre – theatre review","author":"Alex First","date":"May 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Newly crafted multi-millionaire Ariel (Tom Stokes) struck up a conversation with the exotic, mysterious, attractive Anna X (Becca Galvin) at a party in New York in 2016. From there, he couldn\u2019t get enough of her. In short, he was smitten from the get go. In her early to mid twenties,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Theatre"","block_context":{"text":"Theatre","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/theatre\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rsz_anna_x_-_photo_by_simon_fazio_fazio_-_feat_becca_galvin_tom_stokes_52026-05-26_153556%EF%BF%BC_4200x_fazx6047.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rsz_anna_x_-_photo_by_simon_fazio_fazio_-_feat_becca_galvin_tom_stokes_52026-05-26_153556%EF%BF%BC_4200x_fazx6047.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rsz_anna_x_-_photo_by_simon_fazio_fazio_-_feat_becca_galvin_tom_stokes_52026-05-26_153556%EF%BF%BC_4200x_fazx6047.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rsz_anna_x_-_photo_by_simon_fazio_fazio_-_feat_becca_galvin_tom_stokes_52026-05-26_153556%EF%BF%BC_4200x_fazx6047.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":147540,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/shhhh-red-stitch-theatre-theatre-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":157364,"position":5},"title":"Shhhh (Red Stitch Theatre) – theatre review","author":"Alex First","date":"July 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Loneliness. Pain. Emotional connection. Desire. Sexual kinks. Consent.\u00a0That is US writer Clare Barron\u2019s Shhhh, which has its Australian premiere at Red Stitch Theatre.\u00a0Bold, confronting and, on occasions, perplexing, it is a play that concerns itself with sexual assault, rape culture, mental and physical wellbeing, and the sisterhood. 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