THEATRE: UNDER ICE

Under Ice is not quite right for a Friday evening sojourn at the theatre – maybe try Tuesday when you’re still in need of a little something to get you through the working week. In Under Ice German playwright Falk Richter presents a pared-back, slick-witted and thoroughly unrelenting attack on the machinations of the corporate world. According to Richter this is a play about ‘people in power’. However, it’s more about the little fish and it seems unfair to snigger at Charlie Sunshine’s (Jason Langley) horribly artless poetry when, despite his smarminess, he’s just trying to lead the pre – GFC good life. Where’s the humanity? But perhaps that’s Richter’s point. Director Kellie Mackereth has assembled a fine cast and the production design supports the bleak outlook of the play. Still, this production doesn’t quite deliver the kick in the guts Richter intended. In the end you’ll probably leave the theatre one of two ways – either smugly confident that you’ve made the right life choices (after all you’re at the theatre not at one of the strip joints down the road), or you’ll do as I did – straighten your tie and head out into the Cross to pick a fight.

 Aug 21-Sept 12, SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross, $26-30, 8002 4772 or griffintheatre.com.au

BY BREE PICKERING