In Indian Ink's Dirty Work, Catherine Yates has the opportunity to showcase her comedic talent.
In Indian Ink's Dirty Work, Catherine Yates has the opportunity to showcase her comedic talent.
REVIEW
A play about a cleaner and a group of mainly nameless office workers might not sound thrilling, but when it is a production by popular and talented Kiwi theatre company Indian Ink and writers Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis, it’s not just thrilling, but exhilarating.
Dirty Work, from the team that gave us Krishnan’s Dairy, Mrs Krishnan’s Party and Paradise: Or the Impermanence of Ice Cream, played in Taranaki over the weekend, and starred members of Taranaki’s NZCF choir alongside actors Justin Rogers, Catherine Yates and Tessa Rao.
While the choir were prepared for the songs they would perform on the night, they hadn’t been given a script of the play itself, meaning they were living in the moment as the action played out on stage around them, and including them.
It’s a clever idea, but clever ideas that are carried out beautifully and creatively are almost the hallmark of Indian Ink productions, and just as those other clever ideas from the theatre company have been, this one is fantastically good fun to watch.
The choir might have been unprepared script wise, but they were anything but unprepared when it came to the music, and provided some fantastic musical numbers throughout the show.
Musically highlights were the renditions of Jai Ho! and Royals. Two very different songs, but each performed in a way that brought a real sense of joy with them.
Individual choir members also shone as the script required them to improvise and react to the storyline playing out around them, and they held their own alongside the talented trio who made up the official cast.
Justin Rogers and Tessa Rao are both talented actors, and as they mime their way through an imaginary holiday as part of the play Dirty Work, they have the audience in the palms of their hands.
As the inept but likeable manager, Justin Rogers is fantastic to watch. He has great physical comedy skills and draws the audience in as he tries his best to understand the task he has been set by the company CEO. A stand-out moment in the play has to be when he and his co-worker Zara take an imaginary trip, painting a clear picture for the audience to see without a single prop, just their expressions and physical movement telling the story.
As Zara, Tessa Rao is mesmerising on stage. She takes the audience with her as her character moves between being a frustrated would-be-traveller and defender-of-the-underdog to being the perpetrator of the most dramatic scene in the play.
It’s her relatability that makes the scene so hard to watch, it so easily could be any of us making the same mistake, acting in the same unkind way.
Adding to the emotional toughness of some scenes is Catherine Yates’s depiction of Joy, the cleaner. The opening scene, when Joy moves around the stage, cleaning and sighing before she lets her imagination take flight for a brief moment ensures the audience fall in love with her character straight away. Yates has great comedic acting skills and this play gives them plenty of opportunity to shine.
The play is everything we have come to expect from Indian Ink, and more besides. It’s a creative, playful way to tell a meaningful story and, like all Indian Ink productions, will stay with you long after the final curtain call.
