Sydney to get sexed up

The Sydney theatre scene is about to get a whole lot sexier…and pinker.

Direct from a hugely successful Melbourne season, director Stephen Nicolazzo’s production of sex.violence.blood.gore will play five shows only next month.

“Transporting it into The Old Fitz theatre will continue to support the underground nature of the work and encourage audiences to sit back and be transported into the bawdy theatrical world that awaits beyond the bar,” Stephen said.

“And I think it will be the very first time that the venue will be entirely painted pink too, which in itself is rather exciting.”

The play, written by Singaporean playwright Alfian bin Sa’at, was first performed in 1999 in secret in a Singaporean basement, with the company not advertising due to the threat of a complete shutdown by police.

“The main thing that drew me to sex.violence.blood.gore was its unapologetic interrogation of sexual politics and repression,” Stephen said.

“It does not point the finger at either Eastern or Western perspectives but, rather, makes a poignant conclusion that all cultural identities are constructed, artificial and ultimately doomed.

“We can assume that our culture is all-embracing of alternative sexualities all we f***ing like, but, in fact, many of the issues presented by this Singaporean man are closer to home than most would like to think.”

Stephen, a Melbourne-based director, is a 2010 NIDA Directing graduate and has been the artistic director of Little Ones Theatre since 2006, a company dedicated to the production of new Australian writing by emerging artists.

During its recent Melbourne run, sex.violence.blood.gore was described by The Age as “both a nightmare and a wet dream,” and “compulsory viewing for anyone serious about theatre”.

With interweaving stories ranging from a repressed geography teacher revealing her nymphomaniac tendencies to her 10-year-old nephew to Japanese soldiers visiting their favourite man-whore for one last time after Japan’s surrender, Nicolazzo’s production reveals a mix of chaotic and climaxing passions.

“There is an energy (in the theatre) that I find hard to describe,” Stephen said.

“I find it fascinating viewing the expressions of those in the audience and a lot of the time it was with wide grins, laughs, and gasps of either joy or despair.”

As heavy hitting as the play’s subject matter can be, Nicolazzo also found a way to give the play his own spin, describing his style of theatre as “a combination of the poetics of camp and surrealism”.

“The whole thing is inspired by Madonna,” Stephen adds as a side-note.

“The Girlie Show, Blonde Ambition, and the outrageous sexuality of female icons in the pop industry.”

Madonna would be proud.

SEX.VIOLENCE.BLOOD.GORE.

THE OLD FITZROY THEATRE

Tickets and more information: 02 9356 3848