Bunbury Fringe Review: WAAPA students showcase skills in South West

The return of Bunbury Fringe sees the opportunity for many emerging artists to share their passion with the South West community in a supportive and feel-good environment.

Among the most talented of the West Australian pool are students of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts who brought two self-devised works to the Tronox Theatre on Monday night.

An enjoyable array of talent, audiences were treated to a 20-minute solo dance composition, Home is an Open Heart by Grace White, and Service with a Smile, a short ensemble performance from five Bachelor of Performing Arts students.

White opened the show with her unique contemporary dance performance, exploring the grounding of moments in nature through fluidity, emotion and tempo.

While admittedly not having seen a lot of long-form contemporary dance pieces in my life, Grace’s evident passion shone through in her performance, with an excellent ability to engage the audience without a single word.

It was a truly touching moment to see tears welling in her eyes upon receiving a well-deserve applause at the end of her routine.

The latter 20-minute play was much more my style, a witty and relatable mockery of what it’s like to work in hospitality.

Having worked in service myself, I can tell you this small but mighty team hit the nail right on the head.

The story follows the team of Bob’s Diner, a popular singing and dancing diner as it takes on new management.

As the over-worked and under-payed staffed battled through their 10-hour shift, I was reminded strongly of the sit-com Superstore in the best way possible - the personable cast of staff members embodying ones we could all recognise in our own workplaces.

Renee-Louise Bottern was stern as stickler-for-the-rules manger Jo, while also giving her great heart and emotional depth.

Special mention must also go to her sound mixing abilities, having also served as sound designer on this production.

Sarah Milde and Rudi Palmela complemented each other well as long-term employees Jesse and Sage, Palmela earning great laughs from the crowd for his very relatable monologue on things we all wish we could say to annoying customers.

Passionate employee “Monty” was given great flair and comedic energy by Jake Battle, a deserving crowd-favourite.

Special mention must go to Saskia Glass in the role of new-starter Eve, not missing a single beat despite jumping into the role just over 24 hours prior to show-time due to one cast member becoming unwell.

A clean and well-executed performance that made effective use of its minimal set through some creative physical theatre, it was evident this cast shared great rapport on and off the stage.

If I had to nit-pick anything, it would be the lack of singing in said singing and dancing diner, but it was made up for in the rhyming dialogue that gave the performance a musical feel as well as the array of cheesy, enthusiastic dance numbers.

The first of my several planned Fringe visits this year, this double-bill was the perfect way to kick things off and has me excited to see more local talent on stage.