Right from the beginning NEVER SAID MOTEL proves to be arresting and engaging. Tamzen Hayes plays a flexible narrator telling a dozen experiences, mainly downbeat, of romance, in a racy, crafted and skilled delivery. She shares these with the audience, in particular selecting a different audience member for each tale. We meet her in an actual motel/hotel room at Bondi – the genre is in situ or immersive from the start. Based on the applause and post show vibe, the immediacy of the opening lasts for most of the audience until the end 50 minutes later. However questions can emerge as the show progresses that qualify its reception.
Why is the show set in a motel room? The author’s notes says this is where people meet, but that is not true of the performance and its audience – a motel room is a private venue, not the place for group meetings. Neither is it true as a combined setting or individual setting. It would be interesting if the double bed, side tables and lights could be a constant setting in all the stories – that, at some point, they occurred in a hotel room, but this is not the case.
The bed in the set takes up a lot of room but is scarcely used in terms of relationship or romance. The latter would help diversify the action and tone of the work, and would, one is sure, be welcomed by an audience. As it is the bed is not necessary – it takes up a lot of room, and a simpler theatrical narrative set, of a chair and props, would work well and allow for more than 20 audience members to be seated at a time.
As far as the sharing of stories with an audience, a dining room would be more effective. Motel and bedrooms are intimate places, and the voyeuristic sense that first greets an audience seeing Tamzen gyrating on the bed and secretly talking of her love lives can fade especially when stories are all told in a constantly loud and high energy.
The idea of using a motel as a setting for a piece of immersive theatre is a good one. However one can ask if the script is best placed for this idea. Having said that, the current script is well written, and peppered with rhetoric and phraseology that are well tuned and charged for its themes and sub characters.
Variation in narration could be achieved by expanding the dialogue of the key character, by way of a meta-narrative – there is an introduction to the work but little by way of transition and conclusion. This would soften the unduly traumatic push of stories, which seem a lot for a young person.
Reviews should not take the form of dramaturgy, suggesting alternative ways for scripting a show, but something like that often seems inevitable. In this case the show has good bones and ideas, with the considerable talent of the actor.
As far as the script and set went, Rachel Baring did a commendable job as director. It is a pity she did not have more range of voice, action and set to work with.
The show was part of the Bondi Festival, a midyear Festival sponsored by Waverley Council and local business. The program apparently is curated. If that means that the program does not accept unsolicited submissions, then it seems to limit the transparency and competition that helps ensure the program is the best one possible.
Performer/Writer: Tamzen Hayes
Produced by Bondi Festival
Venue Partner: The Blue Hotel
Director: Rachel Baring
Sound Design: Danni A. Esposito
Review by Geoffrey Sykes
