Perfomance: Meatworks

Sky City Theatre

Review: Susan Budd


A determinedly unglamorous musical, Meatworks charts the progress of a group of freezing workers who decide to form a cooperative when posed with the threat of closure.

Their road is not easy. A posse of vegetarian activists threatens sabotage, the Hooray Henry owner arrives from Mother England to put a spanner in the works, but love promises to conquer all.

No fewer than 46 songs, which follow each other in dizzying succession, are interspersed with short passages of dialogue. As most songs are sung solo, the effect is of a series of monologues. Development of characters and relationships is made difficult with characters trapped in their thought-bubbles.

Although some songs are very good, their quantity leaves the audience with the impression of a continuous blur of sound. The first act of 90 minutes would lend itself to judicious cutting of songs and dialogue.

Roger Morton has been a successful director of the plays of Steven Berkoff which are gritty, stylised, passionate pieces. With the more naturalistic writing of Meatworks, he is less successful. The sketchily-drawn characters are not easily brought to life and the cast of 12 are too often treated as still, silent witnesses to the soloist as they stand uneasily about the stage.

When the cast fill the stage singing and dancing, the atmosphere is electrifying. But it happens too seldom. The production needs more choreographed and energetic movement.

With a tendency to warm, fuzzy treatment of its themes, Meatworks lacks guts and pizazz. It is as sweet as Salad Days and as true to life.

Willa O'Neill holds centre stage as Jenny, the Zambesi-clad receptionist no man can resist. Bopping in platforms and threatening to wriggle out of her tiny dress, she is as cute as pie. She has the "wow" factor - and she can sing, too. Jan Hellriegel and Peter Sa'ena-Brown are the singers of the cast and it is a joy to hear them.