‘The Good Girl’ is a futuristic, dark comedy, written by a lecturer in creative writing, Melbourne playwright, Emilie Collyer. As well as being a winner of the Best Emerging Writer Award at the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Collyer has also been nominated for a Green Room Award.
Collyer specialises in controversial and adult plays, and this very funny production from Black Martini is no exception. Due to the lurid dialogue, this is an adult’s only production.
This two-hander can be seen at Studio 411, near car park 4, in Murdoch University, South Street in Murdoch. The season of this 55-minute play, runs nightly at 7.00 until Saturday 12th November.
The year is about 2030, and the scene is an upmarket apartment, with marble walls. The room has a settee on one side of the stage, and a kitchen area on the other (set design, Thomas Dimmick with an original, special effect by Andrew David)
The production manager and lighting designer was Jess Serio, and stage manager – Ashleigh Barrow. Sound Design by Tay Broadley.
Anjali (Shannon Rogers) is making a chocolate cake in the kitchen, when Ven (Hock Edwards) dressed in a bright orange protective work suit (costume design, Anna Weir) enters the room. He tells Anjali that he has finished the adjustments and that everything should work well from now onwards.
Then a whimpering sound can be heard from one of the bedrooms. Ven explains that he does not know how the robot’s chip has picked up this fault, but everything else should be OK.
Anjali, a brothel Madame, continues to chat to the computer repairman. She explains how business is tough for her and her lifelike robot prostitute and so she must find new ways to make a bit of extra money. Then, a phone call from a client changes her life.
The play’s director, Tay Broadley, and his assistant Sean Wcislo, have grasped the dry, black humour of this piece beautifully. The two actors have wisely underacted their parts, giving a hilarious ‘matter of fact’ attitude to the whole situation. Good solid performances.
The cleverly written, but weird script gradually feeds you scraps of the story, whilst keeping you in a state of limbo. You watch, wondering where the bizarre story is going, whilst filled with suspense desperate for the next morsel.
It is always good to see a new play that is a little bit different, with Black Martini; they give you something fresh each time.