The Young Playwrights season is Troupe’s contribution to Come Out ’85 in Adelaide. Seven plays were chosen from 140 scripts by young writers aged between 7 and 17. The first six to be performed are a theatrical treat.

The plays range from a zany retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, satiric spoofs of westerns and science fiction to disquieting studies of violence and its effect on the individual whether in war or in the dosed world of the family.

Directors Jules Holledge and Venetia Schroeder and the cast of six actors set an energetic pace as they move effortlessly through a profusion of costumes changes and acting styles.

They also take time to show us the tricks of their trade. Actors set scenes with lighting. demonstrate fog machines and distribute fabric leaves for the audience to toss on to the stage for an instant forest. Such devices remind us that we all help to create a play.

While the writers exhort us to challenge assumptions whether in the social meaning of fairy tales or in our roles as citizens, they also remind us that theatre informs with telegrams to the subconscious, providing images and apparent non-sequiturs which are both disturbing and affecting. The narrative compression of George and the Goonybird and Stormwater Drain, for instance, is impressive – the writers trust their meaning and expect as much from us.

Mary Moore’s costumes and sets are inventive and enhance both the comedy and the eeriness of the writing. The visual panto gags in Little Red Riding Hood are a scream and the picnic scene in George and the Goonybird bears a stern resemblance to illustrations from Heinrich Hoffmann or Cole’s Funny Picture Book.

Troupe has done well with this project as have writers Danielle Norton and Joanne Morgan, Louise Watson, Craig Behenna, Suzy Bourne, Sarah Heron and Adam Deane. This is more proof of the value of the Come Out Festival. We look forward to further projects like it.

The National Times, May 17, 1985.p.33.