Fringe theatre reviews: 44 Minutes | Stay | Weiner Beacon | The Hunger Artist | The Witches of Macbeth + more

44 Minutes ★★★★

Assembly @ St Andrew Square (Venue 172) until 30 August

“Hell is other people,” as Sartre famously wrote, and his Huis clos seems to meld with the grimy torture porn of the Saw franchise in first-time writer Lev Steinberg’s brutal but gripping four-hander.

And there’s something deliciously old-fashioned about its conceptual set-up: four men, trapped in a cage for unknown reasons, must decide which one of them to sacrifice, otherwise they all die.

Warped psychological experiment? Gruesome game? As the quartet dig into their backgrounds and histories for clues as to why they’re there, and what might be going on, alliances are made and shattered, accusations hurled and flung aside, and ideas of divine power and retribution grow increasingly urgent.

Steinberg’s ferocious existential drama has just the right venue in a claustrophobic box that allows no respite from his play’s intensity, and where the audience is so close to his four prowling protagonists that they’re virtually part of the action (perhaps more so than they initially realise).

And he has an excellent cast of big US names: John Billingsley is a put-upon hardware-store owner, while Matthew Petrick is a struggling student caring for his ailing mother, and Dorian Missick is particularly impressive as a no-nonsense ex-cop who seems to sideline empathy in favour of a quick resolution. Okay, the unending wailing of Christopher Ryan’s apparent amnesiac might grow wearing, but it might also offer a clue as to why they’re all there. Director Michael DeFilippis handles pacing, tension and clarity expertly.

Writer Steinberg’s closing section might threaten to diminish his achievement by refocusing his expansive philosophical drama into narrower, more specific concerns - though even those open up dreadful new questions of their own. Nonetheless, 44 Minutes is a cunningly conceived work that peels back layers of blame, guilt and retribution to ask who gets to decide our fates, and who among us are the real monsters. David Kettle

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Stay ★★★★

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24) until 30 August

Sally Brooks has an alphabetised spice rack and iron-clad boundaries. She likes her ordered life, and tends to bail when relationships get messy. But then she falls in love with a widower with a five-year-old daughter, and finds herself in the midst of a family riven by grief.

Brooks is an experienced stage and television actor, but this self-penned solo show, directed by Pádraic Lillis, is personal, frank and heartfelt. It begins with a random act of kindness: she volunteers to be a customer for five-year-old Harper’s face-painting enterprise. When Harper’s mother Suzanne dies suddenly a few weeks later, she finds herself drawn in to helping the family.

As she falls in love with Suzanne’s husband Peter, and they become a household of “two adults, one child, three cats, one dog, and grief”, she knows there’s no going back. Harper has lost one mother, she needs to know she won’t lose another. As Harper begins to trust her, Sally knows her job is to “take this child’s heart and don’t drop it”.

Brooks is a fine writer, clear-eyed, unsentimental, often funny. We’re in no doubt we’re listening to her own story, but it’s poised and carefully crafted: nothing is superfluous. It’s honest, too. More often than not, she does exactly the right thing - including paying a $1000 vet’s bill for a goldfish - but there are also times when she’s pushed beyond her limits.

As befits a woman who likes to be in control of her emotions, her performance is assured and understated. If occasionally she sounds like a parenting manual, it’s probably because she has read a few. But Stay is a moving, kind story about the journey through grief, and how one woman stepped outside her comfort zone to help a family heal. Susan Mansfield

Weiner Beacon ★★★

Venue 13 (Venue 13) until 28 August

A car flips on Highway 401 in a snowstorm, the crash rendered through Sheer Hysterics’ inventive physical theatre, and Catherine wakes to find a billboard leaning over her – the “Jesus Saves” sign.

She’s taken home to recuperate with the sign and his wife, the Schneider’s meats billboard, played by actors with boxes on their heads.

Catherine, a couple’s therapist, notices the well-worn grooves of their marriage. Schneider works the night shift so pilots can spot her and know they’re home – hence the “Wiener Beacon” of the title – while Jesus stays in bed, undermining her: “Am I important to you?” “Not as much as sleep – I'm kidding!”

Technical design conveys her flickering, dying generator, while Jesus mutters about her “prime real estate,” secretly hoping she’ll fail so he can take her spot.

It’s a memorable, zany hour, and one that could delve further into the emotional abuse and carelessness it’s clearly interested in. Still, there’s a tender, human story buried in the billboards, about the pressure on women to keep excelling while their male counterparts coast. Josephine Balfour-Oatts

The Hunger Artist ★★★

Rotunda theatre (venue 65) until 23 August

People have always gone to extreme lengths for art, physically, mentally and emotionally. Based on Franz Kafka’s short story, this one-man show introduces us to a professional hunger artist and explores how one person pushes his body and mind to its limits.

The performance begins with a pre-recorded summary of Kafka’s life and writing, providing useful context before introducing his final story.

In the 50-minute monologue, Jonathan Sidgwick gives a freakish, crazed performance, using his physicality and piercing eyes to create an unsettling presence. Black and white body paint emphasises his bones and gaunt figure, while the simple set, a single cage, effectively reinforces his status as a spectacle.

The performance follows the decline of the hunger artist’s popularity. We gain an insight into his thoughts, feelings and obsession with pushing his body to extremes. As audiences across the world dwindle, their lack of interest becomes perhaps the most painful thing he experiences.

It becomes somewhat monotonous and drags a little towards the end, much like the hunger artist’s act as public attention fades. The introduction of a few more voices, that of his empresario or an onlooker, could add some variation. Nevertheless, Sidgwick delivers a fully committed performance of pain. Suzanne O'Brien

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When You Are a Tick ★★

Zoo Playground (Venue 186) until 23 August

The trio of male characters at the heart of Fair Love Collective’s off-the-wall When You Are a Tick come across as squat-dwelling 1980s anarcho-punks in the mould of The Young Ones, embarking on a spate of intimidating crimes inspired by a philosophy book one of them steals when he breaks into a car (his own girlfriend’s, unwittingly).

Yet despite the pleasing sense of esoteric disruption at the heart of Sofya Krasnova’s text, the raw performances and DIY scene changes (effected by backdrop curtains being shifted) remind that for theatre to feel like it exists on the edge of chaos, it has to be especially precise. Alex Hall’s jazz and rock drumming score is a really enjoyable addition, however. David Pollock

The Witches of Macbeth ★★★

theSpace @ Venue 45 (Venue 45) until 22 August

With ancient robes, bones, medicine and magic, the production design for this Boston-based theatre company’s adaptation of Macbeth – that sees the witches play all the roles, with Macbeth drawn from the ‘other world’ of the audience – drips with the aesthetics of the Catholic faith, Mesopotamian mythology and the occult.

Pairing Shakespeare’s original story with that of the goddess Inanna with Macbeth as “the sacrificial king” means that there’s a lot going on in an adaptation that’s just over an hour long. But the cast, with Maurice Parent, Eve Kagan, and Spencer Evett, are a delightfully diverse bunch of Weird Sisters who, with Benjamin Evett as Macbeth, add the polish of a Hollywood action remake, even if at times this dampens the heart of the wretched tragedy.

The multi-rolling leads to some interesting combinations of costumes and characters – for Parent’s be-basqued Macduff in particular – while Kagan adds gothic pizazz to Lady Macbeth whose evolution into of the witches coven doesn’t feel too much of a leap.

A paint brush dagger dripping with blood daubed across a mannequin death mask adds both horror and mystique, the primary emotions behind this striking reimaging in which the atmosphere is the driving force. Sally Stott

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