It's good to get back to Belvoir, my theatre home away from home. While this isn't the best show they've done in the last few years, it's at least a loud vulgar audience embracing comedy with a rich culturally diverse cast.
The main weakness of the evening is Kodie Bedford's script, which feels more like a collection of scenes than a cohesive story - there's setups that don't pay off (including the title), there's a lead character who feels loosely defined except for her relationships to the rest of the cast, and there's a treatment of mental illness as "wacky people acting wacky" rather than anything deeper. But it's compensated for with a strong cast - in particular Sascha Horler, so frequently used as a supporting cast member, gets a big fat lead where she can run wild with the material and makes the most of it, in a series of incredibly tacky costumes Chenoa Deemal as the ostensible central character gets a bit sabotaged by a script that never really lets her have a cohesive interesting character beyond "vaguely capable of organising everybody else", but she gives it her best shot. Valerie Bader's two roles are a bit mixed - the Grandma who is the reason for everybody's gathering doesn't quite come across as strongly as the premise suggests she might, but her second act role as an awful aunt is a scene stealer consistently. Alex Stylianou and Shirong Wu both get better material as the brother and sister though neither really get a full arc so much as gestures towards one, and Bjorn Stewart gets some good laughs but, again, not really a complete character arc as the boyfriend.
The usual Belvoir high standards of costume, set, lighting and sound are met pretty solidly, and it's an enjoyable afternoon (cause I was watching the matinee) in the theatre. But I wish that script development had pushed for something a little more cohesive.
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