Short and Sweet explores light and dark

BY PAM WALKER
Talented Bondi actor Belinda Gosbee will test her skills in two very different plays at the Seymour Centre in February.

Gosbee is one of about 500 Sydney actors, directors and writers strutting their stuff in Short + Sweet, ‘the biggest little play festival in the world’, made up of 10-minute plays.

From February 4 to 7, she will perform in the quirky two-hander Palindrome Love, directed by Alexandra Byron.
‘The play is in two halves, with exactly the same dialogue delivered backwards and forwards so to speak which completely changes the meaning. It is a very clever piece that works without changing a single word,’ she said.

The mood darkens considerably in The Shower, also at the Seymour Centre, from February 11 to 14. Based on a true story and originally written as a documentary by Anne Delaney who has now adapted it for a short play, this is the tragic tale of a woman jailed for over five years for the murder of her baby, a murder it seems she did not commit. Gosbee plays the neighbour who reveals that the woman is covering up for her young daughter.

This is Gosbee’s fourth experience with Short + Sweet.
‘I think it’s a great opportunity to tread the boards at a time of year when not much else is happening in theatre,’ she said. ‘And because the plays are short you can have a taste of something different and you don’t need to put in six weeks of rehearsal and a possible run of two months. So it’s a good way to try out lots of plays.
‘And as a skill, you have to get it happening fast so it’s a great challenge for an actor. And because a lot of these plays involve upcoming writers and directors you get to make really good connections with developing talents. We can all help each other so it’s a great networking opportunity.’

Gosbee, a long time resident of Bondi beach, has appeared in Bryan Brown’s Two Twisted opposite Peta Wilson and Dan Wylie and her theatre credits include Michelle in The Boys and Katie in Soulmates. She was also the shrieking supermarket girl in BankWest’s original Rebel campaign.