Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Outdated

The Ensemble Theatre present OUTDATED, written and Directed by Mark Kilmurry, at the Ensemble Theatre at Milson's Point. March 19th - 17th April.

OUTDATED is a new Australian work written and directed by the Artistic Director of the Theatre, Mark Kilmurry. It is a simple set of sketches that begin with a middle aged couple meeting to date over the internet. 

We follow a 90-minute trajectory of the ups and downs of the relationship. It involves only two characters: Olivia, played competently and breezily by Rachel Gordon and Matt played by Yalin Ozucelik. Mr Ozucelik has a charming grasp of a pencil thin individual and is especially physically dexterous - his acrobatics are well worth enjoying.

Set and Costume Design is by Simon Greer. Lighting by Kelsey Lee. Sound Designer by David Grigg.

There is a sureness of laughter in OUTDATED but the play's structure and  content is hardly cutting edge and does feel - I will say it : outdated. Severely outdated. It feels like a pitch for a comfortable waste of time television series, circa 1960-something - it is "ho hum diddly dumb" in 2021 in the atmosphere of a year long pandemic and the sex and corruption scandals surrounding our present governments. 

OUTDATED feels like a hermitic bowl bringing us into another time to distract us. The concept and the writing needs more bite and reality.

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