Posted at 20 Sep, 00:00h
in review
wittily acted and imaginatively directed, with an excellent use of hard hats and the Parliamentary mace
Last year’s MKA show at the Fringe recast Richard II as a version of the Rudd/Gillard contest. It’s Campbell Newman who takes the leading role in the new show, written by Eric Gardiner and directed by Tom Gutteridge, which has the erstwhile Queensland premier, played by Conor Gallacher, intensifying his tough policies on bikie gangs.
He forces them to become gladiators fighting to the death in a specially built Colosseum. But Newman is unable to stop his two young girls (Zia Zantis-Vinycomb and Artemis Ionnides) themselves being drawn to outlaw life.
The play is book-ended by two scenes of the family at table, one pious and shiny, the other filthy and degraded.
This may sound like a retread of familiar ideas about repression and violence as entertainment. Wildness keeps Bounty from being too obvious, though, and it is wittily acted and imaginatively directed, with an excellent use of hard hats and the Parliamentary mace.