THEATRE: BANG

Bang, written by award-winning playwright Jonathan Gavin, is a story as direct and to the point as its title. The play presents us, on a global platform, with an oyster of contradictions: hope and hopelessness, terrorists and the terrified, belief and the unbelievable. And within this ‘oyster’ lay one’s moral code and the confronting reality of morality. Director Kim Hardwick has delicately manoeuvred this multi-layered story of religious-fuelled violence, heartbreak, hilarity, death and memory. I found it gripping. Every word, almost poetic in delivery, was timed beautifully as all six actors weaved about the intimate space, paralleling the character’s inter-connected lives. It sounds complex, and it was to a certain degree, but I related to its core.  What also worked was the simplicity of the space. Things, objects and walls that could have belonged to anything and everything became familiar possessions and surroundings at the end. And the precise lighting became an effective tool for place, emotion and intensity. The work was daring. It pushed the sensitive buttons. We flinched, we cried, we laughed and we learned about truth, and the chaos that it brings with it.

Until Jul 4, Belvoir St Downstairs, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills, $24-32, 9699 3444, belvoir.com.au

BY BRIANNA LA RANCE