Highly Flammable Love is highly lovable
Reviewed at The John Bray Centre for Performing Arts on 21 February 2019
Presented by Marcus Doherty & Zara Sengstock
Marcus Doherty and Zara Sengstock met while studying film and have created a very funny show with Highly Flammable Love. I have to admit to being somewhat dubious about what was to come when the play opened with beer swilling ‘ocker’ blokes sitting on a station platform.
But I need not have worried. Writers and actors, Doherty and Sengstock have far too much talent and ability to produce a shallow performance which just pokes fun at the stereotypical Aussie countrymen or at their city slicker cousin Dennis. The performers combine comedy, dance, live music, pathos and drama to present a very funny play which also has some powerful messages.
Dennis has followed his true love back to her home town and now feels he is a big fish – with a law degree – stuck in the small pond of Shilungatta. He is a far more complex character than the boring little tick we first see when he cannot believe that Kelly is dumping him. A dance routine, accompanied by piano and violin, and complete with tinsel trimmed jackets and sparkling toppers rounds off this first scene.
The set is ingenious with a rolling cart with different fronts serving as a coffee shop counter, a kitchen bench and the bar in the local pub. Here, a drunken and desperate Dennis meets Zoe, also a local returning to her home town. The physical comedy displayed by Doherty and Ayesha Gibson as they both become increasingly drunk when Dennis starts mixing some pretty lethal cocktails, is cleverly choregraphed and brilliantly executed and had the audience in stitches.
The drunken duo, of course, end up spending the night together and the differing reaction of each of them to a one night stand are seen in the sharp, witty, and yet at times, cutting dialogue which ends with Zoe leaving. From here on the play displays a darker hue while still allowing comic moments – such as Officer Roger and the towel or the car chase. But no spoilers here!
The only other performers named in the Fringe Guide, and there is no program, are Sengstock herself and comedian Kel Balnaves. However, the entire ensemble deserves praise. Get along to be amused, amazed and moved and see this play for yourself.
Reviewed by Jan Kershaw
Venue: The John Bray Centre for Performing Arts, St John’s Grammar School, 29 Gloucester Ave, Belair
Season: 22-23 Feb at 8pm
Duration: 105 minutes
Tickets: $25 Concession $20
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