Fringe Review: "Minus One Sister" is "Remarkable in Every Aspect"
On the first of many Summer Nights, as the housewarming party raged on at the Blue Room down the road, a privileged few had the joy of watching the WA premiere of Minus One Sister at the State Theatre. This is a play not done in halves; entrancing from start to finish as it divulges the darkest corners of the human psyche, where house music throbs you to the core. It is an adaptation of Sophocles' Electra by Anna Barnes, and is one of the most eloquent adaptations of any classic piece I have ever seen, goonbag included.
The immediacy of it is shocking, the way it hones in on the here and now to embody today's millennial nightmare; one of anxiety and terror at the crumbling world around them, while still being grounded in the legend of a sincerely effed up family. The accomplished actors, members of the company SALT, confront the new-ancient world we live in by embodying characters facing some of society's greatest challenges in their battles with addiction, mental illness and abundant betrayal. The performance is holistic and sensitive in exploring these issues; it sees the whole person, it sees everything, the whole black-white-grey muddle we live in. The brutality of it all is subtle but gripping, and could not be better articulated than it is by this masterful cast.
All moments of this play are frighteningly entertaining while being selectively comedic or shocking. It is gripping the way the jowls of a dog are or having a staring contest with a statue is; you don't want to blink or you'll miss something. It bears the mark of excellent theatre and I simply cannot stop thinking about it. Everyone involved deserves a massive round of applause and a large drink as a show that is remarkable in every aspect is hard to come by let alone produce. So come and explore the age-old question of how many wrongs it takes to make a right, and be sure to watch your back, you wouldn't want to end up with a knife in it.
