swallow > reviews

City Search Review | Drum Media Review

City Search Review

Urban Tales is a new theatre company that’s been having a lot of success with a very simple idea – people like their entertainment actually to be entertaining. Swallow has played a season in Sydney already, hot on the heels of their previously successful show "You’ll Eat It and You’ll like It! Swallow now returns to the Tilbury as an alternative (i.e. non Olympic) portrait of Sydney. The format is sketch comedy, and the promise is a no-holds-barred look at the seamy, steamy, and slimy underbelly of Sin City. Sex in, under, over, through and beyond the city. Sydney might like to taste but does it ever swallow?

Stephen Dunne – City Search. Sept 2000

 

---

 

Drum Media Review

Take nine daring and talented actors, a hunk of controversial subject matter, a smidgen of drug and alcohol abuse and salt with original and clever scripts. Bite off a bit more sex than you can chew and SWALLOW. Urban Tales are back for more laughs at the Tilbury.
A stripper loses his nerve, a red headed Jesus reclines on the cross and it’s time for stranger danger with Constable Bruce!
You couldn’t cram more diverse and quirky subject matter into one performance if you tried. There is a link though – it’s all set in Sydney, it’s all raunchy and it’s all damn funny. And that’s no mean theatrical feat.
Amy Kersey and Ross Hall’s direction turns a pleasant pub atmosphere into a den of theatrical and sexual preoccupation. The audience is thoroughly involved and implicated, as one minute we’re a class of school kids, and the next a restaurant full of perverts.
One of the strongest points of the performance is that it oscillates beautifully between a real time acknowledgement of the audience and total suspension of disbelief and fantasy. Such is the changeover as a blindate scripted to take place at the Tilbury among the audience, turns into a spectacularly amusing matrix-like slow motion shooting stand off, complete with epic sound track and the death of an audience member.
The performance finds its gravity in the strength of the performers and the wit of the eleven short scripts that comprised it, written by the actors. Fairly rudimental lighting and set leaves no room for acting deficiencies. This is the contemporary equivalent of Greek drama. Keep it simple and funny, and keep the sexual references flowing.
All the ‘f’ and ‘c’ words get an airing and there’s just enough cross-dressing netball players and nudity to keep you titillated. If it’s a classy night at the theatre you want, stick to the Opera House, but if you’re into seeing how it is and a raucous belly laugh, this is one of the best nights out you’ll find in Sydney.

Vanessa McCausland – Drum Media. Sept. 2000