Brisbane review - Set Me On Fire: entertaining

Lilian Harrington

Production:  Set Me On Fire

Company: Silent Sky Collective

Writer /Producer: Samara Louise

Director: Cale Dennis

Location: Back Dock Arts 

103 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley.

Anywhere Festival: July 24-Aug 4

Sessions: 1 pm Matinee and 7 pm Evenings

 Bookings: www.anywhere.is / 0481143845

The Brisbane Anywhere Festival features great entertainment for viewers, because the program encompasses a range of events including:  theatre, music, cabaret, drag, dance and comedy, all performed in some unique venues around Brisbane.

Set Me on Fire is a poignant and sensitive play written by a young, emerging artist, Samara Louise, and directed by Cale Dennis of the Silent Sky Collective, staged at Back Dock Arts, in Fortitude Valley, tucked away in a converted industrial building in Brunswick Street, (a new studio theatre space), colourfully decorated, where boutique productions can be presented by emerging artists.

Set Me On Fire is a two hander. It features Rachel McMurray as Eden and Mannon Davies as Noah. The work invites the audience to reflect on a youthful relationship which had passion, tenderness, excitement and fear and yet there was anger and shame.  It addresses the  question  of the human  feelings that falling in love creates. The feeling of an inner fire a person experiences within his or her being and the feeling of fire when that love fades or ends badly. The writer’s concept is well thought-out and shows a tenderness and an understanding of a past relationship that might have been; it highlights negative influences which disrupt the lovers journey, such as family and cultural traditions.

The female perspective is seen through the actions of Eden, who reflects at times rather distantly on what is now and what was then, through her recently published book of poetry, and Noah’s response to this; Samara Louise has shown a good flow and progression in developing the two characters, which kept the audience fully engaged.

Director Cale Dennis has designed a detailed setting of the Antique-Second Hand Shop, which Eden runs as a business; she sells preloved clothes, gifts and knickknacks and copies of her recently published book.

 Dennis has used an old TV to indicate the somewhat abrupt time changes, as the play moves between the present and the past. It highlights how two young teenagers, Eden and Noah, developed a close relationship. Noah’s   Italian family had rules and expectations and didn’t approve of Eden.  Noah works for his mother, so he must follow her rules and this eventually causes a rift between the young couple, and their relationship falls apart. Noah travels and Eden writes a book and starts a business; Noah returns, and Eden is cool and composed ; he has made preparations to marry the girl of his mother choice. 

The two actors contrasted well, Rachel McMurray and Mannon Davies showed fluency and good interaction, and differences, although at times restrained. On reflection it would have added a different dimension to have seen Noah’s Italian mother, or heard her voice on the phone. Further, a large couch was moved centre stage to indicate a room change in one scene, which could have been repositioned, so as it didn’t interrupt the scene flow. Modest lighting and sound effects by Tim James, complimented the action. The cast captured the intention well, but, initially, some of the dialogue was spoken too fast and McMurray’s diction was not always clear, although this improved as the play progressed.  A stronger character delineation was needed between the teenage  scenes   and the young couples’ encounter in the shop. Set Me on Fire is part of the Anywhere Festival which runs until August 4.  It is entertaining and innovative.