The Big Funk

“Human beings are the absolute home of the unexpected,” declares John Patrick Shanley, whose beguilingly unique play comes to Darlinghurst’s Tap Gallery this March. Following a widely successful life in the US, The Big Funk is one of the Pulitzer Prize winner’s most iconic dramatic comedies challenging its audiences through its provocative exploration upon the modern condition.

Infused with an ensemble of powerhouse characters, the script promises to be instantaneously gripping. As a support system to her knife-throwing husband, Fifi’s understanding further extends to her husband’s out of work actor friend, Austin. It is through Austin’s character that the simplicity of kindness in explored, entrenched within his developing relationship with Jill; a woman he encounters in a bar. Following a harrowing first date experience in which Jill is reprimanded and covered in petroleum jelly, Austin must overcome her disdains and gain her permission to bathe her, an imagery that develops into a cleansing metaphor for the play.

Presented by Suspicious Woman Productions whose performances focus upon the validity of the human spirit, old concepts of compassion and faith are explored through refreshingly offbeat situations. The characters’ flowing soliloquies will continue to probe audiences far after the play concludes. (CW)

11 – 21 March, The Tap Gallery (Downstairs), Darlinghurst, Sydney, Tickets $30/ $25, www.suspiciouswomanproductions.com, 0403 296 196.