“There were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and it was a great example of independent theatre bringing cleverness, humour, and reflection to audiences.”
Althea Mouhtouris
3.5 lottery tickets
Venue: Flow Studios, Camperdown
Dates: 1-12 April
It takes a talented cast and excellent direction to create joy and cohesiveness in an absurdist theatre production.
The Lotto Line is a fine example of where it works.
Five diverse but stand-alone characters stand in line day after day for lottery tickets while the Lotto Master issues ridiculous decrees along with the paper tickets. No one claims the winning ticket. It’s a meaningless and relentless venture … until one day the five start to interact. In doing so, they move from isolated characters to a connected team working together to face obstacles, both imagined and real.
In truth, trying to explain the storyline diminishes the complexity and beauty of the production.
Written by actor and playwright, John Tsakiris, The Lotto Line contains sharp tones of Greek mythology. There are references to Zeus’s beard and Icarus who flies close to the sun (in this instance, not enough), while the tale of Sisyphus – fruitless labours – underpins the premise of the story.
There are some stand-out performances. Mr Horner (James Thomasson) cleverly captures the facial expressions and stumbling slapstick that encapsulate the absurdist performer. Think Roberto Benigni in Life is Beautiful combined with The Three Stooges, carrying narrative via the body. Despite being wordless for most of the show – the Lotto Master banished them for speaking out of turn – Mr Horner communicates more effectively through Thomasson’s performance than most speaking people.
Another excellent performance was given by Ms Atkins (Megan Heferen, who also co-directed and co-produced). Appearing as the most “sensible” of the five, Ms Atkins grows through self-awareness and lack of success but ultimately learns nothing. The Lotto Line ends as it should, another reflection of the cyclical and the meaningless.
Holly Mazzola and Larissa Turton play both Mrs Cotter and Miss Dabbs in a very funny body switch. They are clever in their characterisations of each character – grunts, groans, and emphysemic breathing for Miss Dabbs, and the shrill simpering of Mrs Cotter – and are so in tune with each other’s performances that the body switch sequence seems as though the performers actually did, in fact, switch brains mid-show.
Jonathan Nicola, who is Mr Borvin, is expressive and explosive when the situation calls for it. His physicality plays very well in The Lotto Line as he bounds and bounces across the stage. At one point it felt like he would be propelled into the audience, such was his fervour and readiness to fly.
The Lotto Master (Jess Spies) appears at the beginning and the end of the show. She commands her scenes through strength of voice and domineering nature of the character. Although we spend marginally less time with the Master than the other five characters, Spies fits in naturally with the rest of the ensemble, leading for scenes involving the six of them to be some of the most entertaining.
Watch out for the kissing scene, where the characters attempt to inject optimism into the scenario, as well as the reversing time sequence where the performers cleverly backpedal through previous scenes with the help of some cleverly timed audiovisual cues.
There were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and it was a great example of independent theatre bringing cleverness, humour, and reflection to audiences. The Lotto Line is the third original show from Studio 5 Productions.
Absurdist theatre gives the audience the opportunity to take what they want. For me, The Lotto Line reflects an increasingly divided world where many (most?) of us work to acquire and accumulate – arguably a meaningless existence.
Finally, I don’t often comment on graphic design – there’s usually no reason to – but the online program is so closely tied to, and reflective of, the absurdist nature of the production that it deserves its own call out. Great job to Claudia Elbourne, and to Patrick Phillips for photography.
Photo credit: Patrick Phillips
3.5 lottery tickets
Althea Mouhtouris, Theatre Now
