Concrete Playground

Bliss is the new play on right now at Downstairs Belvoir. It's not, as I actually thought, a theatrical re-imagining of the awesome 1985 Australian movie classic Bliss based on Peter Carey's novel. That was the one where Barry Otto was stuck in a surreal suburban nightmare full of Freudian fish birthing and rampant incest. This is totally different. It's a new play from Quebec about a check-out chick stuck in a surreal supermarket nightmare full of Freudian frog birthing and rampant incest.

The play is an examination into the cult of celebrity and consumerism. It's full of bizarre twists that are kind of hard to get your head around. The team make the best of what they've been given —  with uniformly solid acting and some clever lighting and sound ideas — but the play sort of buckles under the weight of its own ambition.
Krew Boylan is the show's standout. She plays Celine Dion, a check-out chick and "a woman on the brink of despair".

Photo: Brett Boardman