BWW Reviews: MASTERCLASS(A PLAY) Challenges Division between Creator And The Creation And The Power Of Performance

Thursday 15th January 2015, Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo

Actors/Directors/Writers Gareth Davies and Charlie Garber join together to bring back their show MASTERCLASS (A PLAY) to open the 2015 season at the Old Fitz Theatre.

This bizarre performance first appears to be a lesson in acting, in keeping with the MASTERCLASS title. For those not familiar with the term, Masterclasses are a form of higher level class, often used in arts disciplines where experts impart knowledge through analysis of a student's presentation of a piece of work, be it a song or performance, often deconstructing the work to critique and study it. Garber asks questions of the audience, but counters it with a warning that this is not an interactive performance, the only responses therefore come from Davies.

As Davies presents deadpan responses to the question of what is an actor, the complexity and absurdity starts to become clear and eventually, through a series of flashbacks as Davies and Garber look back on the events that created Davies the audience learns of the unusual connection between the two men. Utilising dialogue, mime, sound effects and mood music from the electronic keyboard, and lighting, Davies' unusual start is described and then the genesis of the character he creates that had no lines, and no name, but overpowered the key characters in a major musical production.

The 1 hour performance rewrites history and alters science as it pairs a major British composer with musical he had no hand in, inserts a new character into said musical that grows up to be Garber, creates new laws of physics and claims a city can run off the energy of a performance. It is a study on when imagination and reality merge and presents as a caricature on actors and their delusions and egomania.

MASTERCLASS (A PLAY) comes across as an impromptu performance in-keeping with a class where the outcomes are determined by the participants and the concept that one person created the other, and therefore knows what his creation is thinking lends itself to the ease of dialogue. The use of mime presents some hilarious moments and the use of spotlights facing into the audience like staring into headlights provides dramatic effect.

This is an out of the square performance that prompts the audience to view things from a different perspective. MASTERCLASS (A PLAY) is highly amusing to performers but would also allow a non-arts mind to contemplate the absurdity of life, creation and its source.

MASTERCLASS (A PLAY)

14 January -31 January 2015

Old Fitz Theatre, 129 Dowling Street (near Cathedral St), Woolloomooloo.

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