Image: Photo by Brett Boardman
Beached is about an obese teenager, Arty, and his Mum JoJo , played by Gia Carides. He weighs in at 401kgs and will die in the next couple of years unless something is done, so they agree to go on a reality television show.
“Beached will give an eye-opening opportunity to see how fake reality TV shows are and the powerful way they are edited to manipulate peoples’ minds. The TV producer knows exactly what they want the audience to feel, what they want contestants to say and do so you feel hooked,” says Blake Davis who plays Arty.
“There’s a whole film component to the play Beached. It’s completely different to any other play because it’s part TV and part theatre. People will get to see behind the scenes of shows like the Biggest Loser as the play’s writer, Melissa Bubnic did quite a lot of research to find out what actually happens in the industry,” says Davis.
Unapologetically satiric, Beached is the moving story of a man imprisoned in his own body. It lays bare the mercenary nature of reality TV, and turns the microscope on society’s insatiable appetite for human misery. (MS)
Jul 19-Aug 31, SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod Street, Kings Cross, $49, griffintheatre.com.au
BY MEL SOMERVILLE
