Gerture and Abalone are agoraphobic. Left to their own devices after the tragic death of their parents in a tree pruning accident, they prepare to win something called ‘the eisteddfod’ with the performance of a lifetime: Macbeth. As the siblings’ stark reality coalesces with the darkly playful world of their imaginations, Lally Katz’s beloved black comedy The Eisteddfod makes it almost impossible to discern which is which.
Realised by an award-winning creative team and performed by two of Sydney’s sparkliest up-and-comers as part of the new Late Night Program at the Old Fitz Theatre (May 21-31), this play is a weird and wacky homage to stories – to those that tell them, hear them, and need them to survive. Twenty years after it was first staged in Australia, this show is as intriguing as ever.
Co-directed by Miranda Middleton (associate director at Ensemble Theatre) and Jess Bell (who just appeared in The Swell at Old Fitz), The Eisteddfod stars Ziggy Resnick (Feminazi at Belvoir 25A, A is for Apple at Griffin) and Fraser Crane (Dumb Kids at KXT on Broadway).
“It is a darkly comic, gut wrenching and nuanced homage to stories, the people that hear them, make them, and need them to survive,” says Resnick, who is also co-producer. “This show talks to the very core of why do we exist? Why do we choose to exist? It is a universal story told in a theatrical, magical, darkly comic form.”
Clocking in at just under an hour, this one-act show is an ideal work of contemporary theatre for a late night session at Australia’s last remaining pub theatre (and it's underneath Time Out Sydney's favourite pub). The Eisteddfod will take to the stage after the Mainstage team have taken their bows, so why not make it a double-bill night of theatre with Sport for Jove’s Isolde & Tristan? (Booking a ticket to both a paired Mainstage and Late Night show will automatically apply a 20 per cent discount to your Late Night ticket at checkout.) Tickets start at $25+bf and you can snap yours up over here.
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