by Diana Miranda
What do you get if you put a sheep with existential angst in a black field theatre and add a spoonful of clowning? The reply is Sheepish, a goofy and pleasant present that makes you chuckle, replicate, and infrequently go, “Wait, what?” Written and carried out by Lauren Talitha Ziebart, with Molly Cass O’Donnell finishing the dynamic solid, that is a kind of theatre delights that refuse to take themselves too critically.
The present follows Daisy (Talitha Ziebart), a cloned sheep that nervously prepares for her cloning ritual beneath the watchful – and barely tyrannical – eye of Dolly (Cass O’Donnell), her predecessor and first-ever cloned sheep. As they cross their days revisiting basic movies for all their polished perfection, what unfolds is a weird journey involving movie reenactments (Pulp Fiction interpreted by sheep? Yes, please!) and a sweet-talking cowboy with a Texan accent and heavy-metal coiffure that lures Daisy to the wild aspect.
The present embraces a DIY aesthetic, and its playful attraction lies exactly in that stripped-down type. Sheepish makes do with two bedsheets, stools and a few keen front-row viewers members doubling as stagehands. This doesn’t simply add attraction; it’s a reminder of how inventive theatre may be when it stops taking itself too critically. Stylised performing sprinkled with clowning and melodrama makes this present dynamic and pleasant. Talitha Ziebart’s script has intelligent moments doubled down by the duo’s knack for bodily comedy. Furthermore, a surprisingly heartfelt track in regards to the struggles of being the freak of the flock provides to this uncommon comedic combine.
While the ending lacks that ultimate one thing to present hermetic closure, Sheepish succeeds in taking audiences on a 70-minute enjoyable journey to discover existential angst as solely cloned sheep can do. The play isn’t making an attempt to shatter emotional ceilings or take pleasure in profound depth. It’s a comedy present for many who love out-of-the-box theatre with a style for playfulness.
At its core, it’s the story of two colliding personalities: Daisy, curious and keen to interrupt free, and Dolly, stubbornly clinging to the protection of repetition. It’s a easy storyline however it could actually serve to replicate on science versus nature, the stainless aura of originality, individuality versus flock behaviour, societal conformism, or not one of the above. It may simply be a enjoyable story, as informed by two sheep. But all roads result in the identical night: a present of light-hearted absurdity which may change the way you take a look at sheep, cowboys and a few of your favorite movies.
Sheepish runs at The Hope Theatre by means of 26 January.
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