Astrid is hard work. Unco-operative, mercurial, exasperating, volatile and with a tiny attention span, she’s clearly seriously disturbed.
Olivia, her therapist, tries to get her to focus and engage with reality, but finds her professional skills inadequate as Astrid’s fiendish and childish attitudes make rational communication impossible.
Who is Astrid, and why is she in a place that looks like a child’s bedroom but could well be in a residential institution of some kind? And exactly who is Marlo? There is much to puzzle the audience.
Astrid chooses to believe chopsticks are edible, and sees no reason why silk might not be crunchy. Her past gradually unfolds; a study of denial carried to extremes because the past is too awful to confront.
Jess Sayer’s play Crunchy Silk (previously seen twice in Dunedin, most recently at the New Athenaeum Theatre in 2019) is directed at the Globe by Jackson Rosie, who received an emerging artist award at the 2024 Ōtepoti Dunedin Theatre Awards.
The cast of three (Shannon Burnett, Zach Hall and Kimberley Buchan) perform magnificently and with excellent pace and timing.
Set design, by Rosie and experienced theatre practitioner Sofie Welvaert, and lighting design by Ella Court add value to an already polished production. Costumes are uncomplicated but entirely appropriate.
Crunchy Silk comes with a plethora of content warnings: for violence, death and dying, emotional, psychological and physical abuse, mental health struggles, strong language, sexual references and suicide. There are also loud bangs.
People seriously affected by any of these may find it advisable to stay away.
This doesn’t detract, however, from the production’s impressive quality.
The season proper will open tomorrow.
The audience at Monday’s preview was highly appreciative, and the applause well deserved.
Review by Barbara Frame
