Reviewed by George Niven

Stepping into the Dome stage at Bats on Tuesday night felt almost like intruding. Taking my seat I felt I was brushing past Freya, the character played by writer Tara Weston-Webb, as she sat cross-legged on the floor of her room fastidiously painting brightly coloured icons in a small grid. The approximately 50 minutes of “Messy”, a new play by Weston-Webb, is set in a single flat bedroom adorned in crafted clay mushrooms and dried orange-slice dream catchers that, together with over-stuffed clothes racks, artfully invokes a distinctly-inhabited private space.

In this semi-biographical dark-comedic work the two main actors and co-directors tell a touching story of friendship, self-doubt, and strength. On its surface, Messy is a play about two flatmates figuring out the “what now?” after art school. Gracie (Cayla Louise) works the same retail job she has had for years while she looks for her opportunity to show her paintings. Freya is an accidental drug dealer, improbably yet pleasingly pairing her crafted mushroom sculptures with a “free gift” for those in the know.

The story is told mainly in a series of short conversations between the two friends in that room, with humour that will surprise you and a quick pace to pull you into their relationship in the first few minutes. The intelligent, quipping dialogue is somewhere between Gilmore Girls and an Aaron Sorkin series. Most twenty to thirty somethings will recognise themselves or their friends in these characters, their relationship and experiences. The audience is a third, silent confidant in their rhythmic relationship.

While the story is told in the one room, frequent scene changes keep the narrative moving.  Every transition between scenes was accompanied by a change in costume: Gracie with quick changes in a variety of striking outfits; Freya changing in front of the audience (it is her bedroom after all) in more subtle steps, as if she spends the whole play getting dressed. The constant costume and scene changes contrast with the static staging to give an impression of the self-critical feeling familiar to many including the characters: I’m stuck and everything around me is moving forward. Still, despite the slickness of the scene changes I found myself wishing the co-directors had given us more time to linger with the characters at the end of some of the more tender scenes.

The two main actors and co-directors gave natural and complete performances. The physicality of Louise screaming into a pillow with her whole person was particularly memorable, as were Weston-Webb’s slightly sarcastic direct to audience speeches exposing her character’s anxieties. A short appearance from Sarah Penny as Annie toward the end of the play gave depth and context to the flatmates’ relationship.

“Messy” runs for two more nights at 7pm at Bats and is about 50 minutes long. If you can’t make it, cross your fingers for a reprisal in a future festival.