Reviews
Adelaide Advertiser : Unit 46 Article from: March 02, 2009 04:20pm - http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25127620-5018580,00.html
Four start review from Adelaides main daily newspaper.
SLICE off the walls of the downmarket apartment
block and one exposes disappointment in its many human forms.
This is the premise of Mick Barnes's play - a study of upstairs/downstairs
neighbours who despise each other, albeit they are almost strangers.
They close their doors to suffer not only proximity with each
other but also the torments of their own loneliness and failure.
It is a tough little drama, beautifully staged so the two apartments
merge into one without really touching. The two characters, played
by Leof Kingsford-Smith and Melanie Armstrong, intersect through
their obsessions and could even have lots in common, if only...
Neither is likeable. But that is the point. There's a strand
of strained humour through the script, but mainly it is a salutary
revelation on how the other half lives. Warning. There is nudity.
Express Media Unit 46 Elizabeth Annells | Wednesday Mar 11th, 2009 http://www.expressmedia.org.au/buzzcuts.php?buzz_review_id=27
This unique performance housed in the Crown and Anchor Hotel captures the essence
of unit dwelling. Unit 46 deals with loneliness, paranoia, obsession and regret,
and raises a laugh while doing so.
Focusing on the lives of two renters, the story switches between Tim (Unit
46 above) and Diane (Unit 36 below). Both loners and out of a job, the set
of units in which they live becomes their world. Each has become confined to
their small box and as a result, reacts with such intensity to their surroundings.
Consumed by thoughts of how annoying the other can be, snoring, singing, vacuuming
and ranting slowly drive the characters insane. The dynamic between the two,
yet never actually speaking to each other, transports the audience into the
life of unit living. The actors never miss a beat and the performance is seamless.
Although, lasting for a little under an hour, by the 40 minute mark the audience
was getting restless. The seats are not the most comfortable and the view from
the back rows is lacking, but the venue does suit the show. A must for anyone
that has been through the ordeal that is unit living.
The Independent Weekly -
3/03/2009 9:48:00 AM http://www.independentweekly.com.au/news/local/news/entertainment/fringe-review-unit-46-actors-anonymous/1448713.aspx
This tightly-written play is a reminder that troubles and tragedy
often stalk below the sharpest comedy. Think of the sad clown.
We laugh at his foibles, knowing that he is hurting deep down.
If we didn’t laugh, we would have to cry.
Unit 46 centres around two of life’s rejects, living in their separate
apartments in a busy metropolis, and reliving the crises of their lives. Tim
(Leof Kingsford-Smith) has been holed up in his urban bunker for five years.
He has come to accept his unit as his whole world where he is the “supreme
being”. He chooses his dinner by throwing darts at a menu board, and
his fantasy film-star companion for the night by the same method. He reminisces
obsessively about his two failed marriages and his sacking for a trivial offence.
Diane (Melanie Armstrong), in Unit 36 directly below Tim, is
perpetually hooked on the wrongs of her Catholic upbringing
and her tortured love life. In her fantasies she is the goddess
Persephone, a victim of the other gods in the shape of her
former husband and young lover. “What wouldn’t
I do for a man tonight,” she laments, while recognising
her prospects are zero.
Do these two tortured people have any outlet for their frustrations?
Well, yes, they’ve got the war they wage with each other
through the floor/ceiling.
Unit 46 is an unusual play
in that the writer, Mick Barnes, has telescoped the two
identical flats into one stage space. The humour of a sharp
script is augmented by this clever staging. Diane and Tim
move around each other, often within touching distance,
but firmly fixed in the audience’s mind
in their individual units. This device has been beautifully exploited
by director Andrew Doyle, and some precise timing from Armstrong
and Kingsford-Smith. The upshot is a play that intrigues and
amuses while exploring life in the 21st century on an intensely
human level. There is something of everyone in these two feuding
misfits.
In the end will they come to make love, not war? Sorry, that
would be telling, wouldn’t it?
Adelaide is first stop for Unit 46 in an international tour
planned to take in Sydney and the Edinburgh and Dublin Fringe
festivals. On this showing it deserves a safe passage. The
season runs Thursday-Sunday, 7 p.m., at the Crown & Anchor
Hotel until March 22. Independent:
Rip it Up http://theadelaidefix.com.au/images/2009/the_fix_005_09.pdf
Unit 46 A burst of entertainment, Unit 46 is a single-set
production played out in the bowels of the Crown & Anchor.
The modest stage and tightly packed audience contribute
perfectly to the subject matter of the next hour: flat
life. The story centres on two characters in vertically
adjoining but otherwise identical flats, exploring the
themes of loneliness, regret and paranoia in blunt but
humorous ways. These people live with tension – both from their
lives and past mistakes, but also with the amusing yet annoying traits of each
other, and it immediately draws you in. The most intriguing aspect is that
the two are able to inhabit the same stage for the hour without directly interacting
or colliding. It’s monologue heavy and communication is appropriately
indirect, involving loud music, vacuuming at odd hours and muted screaming.
This creative use of space is definitely a highlight, making its choreography
as good as the writing. Brad McNaughton Unit 46 continues at Crown & Anchor
until Sun Mar 22.
Adelaide Theatre Guide - UNIT 46 Until 22 Mar
2009 http://www.theatreguide.com.au/current_site/reviews/reviews_detail.php?ShowID=unit&ShowYear=2009
Review by Nikki Gaertner Have you ever lived so close to your
neighbours that every noise, every movement, every conversation
louder than a whisper from them becomes an irritating part
of your everyday life? This is the case for Unit 46 (Leof Kingsford-Smith)
who lives above Unit 36 (Melanie Armstrong). Both live alone,
slowly going insane in their tiny apartments, and both are
consumed by thoughts of how annoying the other can be.
There is a lot of dialogue, and thankfully the
actors can be commended for knowing it very well and keeping
up the pace for the entirety of the show. There are funny moments
(perhaps not as sidesplitting as is mentioned in the Fringe guide
description, but enough to raise a laugh or a smile), as the
two banter through various topics that are important to the characters
at the time: from garbage collection, to ex-husbands and wives,
from meditation to toilets.
Kingsford-Smith is entertaining
and does well as the male living alone who has become accustomed
to everything being just the way he likes it (and who won’t change for
anyone). Armstrong equally presents the exasperated, recently
divorced 38 year old who isn’t sure what direction her
life is taking (is it already over for her?!)……..
A note to parents – there’s nudity in this show,
so don’t bring the kids unless you’re comfortable
with them seeing both characters without their clothes (rear-view
only).
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