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Fringe Review: Happy Gas

Happy Gas. Photo courtesy of Payaso Pictures.

This incredibly moving show, is the story of an estranged couple breaking under pressure. Humorous, violent, heartbreaking, intense…

 

Happy Gas. Photo courtesy of Payaso Pictures.

Happy Gas. Photo courtesy of Payaso Pictures.

Presented by Payaso Pictures
Reviewed 11 February 2014

Happy Gas opens with a cold, desolate tableau of a man and a woman waiting for their car to start working. Fluorescent tubes bathe the stage in a harsh white glow and cast shadows in all the wrong places. The couple starts fighting over the most trivial things and it becomes obvious that stress is rising. They begin looking for their dog, threatening the audience, talking about decapitation. And it only gets more bizarre.

This incredibly moving show, directed by Paulo Castro, is the story of an estranged couple breaking under pressure. Although it may seem a simple story, and one that’s been told many times over, it is anything but ordinary. The dream-like setting is never fully explained, leading the audience to make their own conclusions, fitting the pieces of the puzzle together as they appear.

The acting is top-notch and the writing incredible. Everything seems almost too authentic, especially when the man, Jimmy (Nick Bennett), approaches the audience and basically threatens to kill them for looking at his partner (Hannah Moore).

The play hits you in three stages. First it is humorous, in a sort of horrifyingly dark way; it then becomes almost violent; and then, eventually, it is heartbreaking as the mystery begins to unravel. Few plays manage to pull off the emotional rollercoaster effect as well as this one.

Happy Gas is a superbly written, delightfully absurd piece that can be best described in one word: Intense.

Reviewed by James Rudd

Venue: Channel 9 Kevin Crease Studios, 202 Tynte Street, North Adelaide
Season: 26February – 2 March 2014
Duration: 60 mins
Tickets: $21.00
Bookings: Book through FringeTix online or phone 1300 621 255

 

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