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Setting the bar high

Headshot of William Yeoman
William YeomanThe West Australian
Frankie’s packs up for the night.
Camera IconFrankie’s packs up for the night. Credit: Daniel James Grant

THEATRE

Frankie’s

Variegated Productions

Blue Room Theatre

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4.5 stars

REVIEW WILLIAM YEOMAN

Remember 80s American sitcom Cheers? Frankie’s is nothing like it.

A tour-de-force of semi-structured improvisation unfolding as a 15-part series — you can catch up with the brilliant “Previously on Frankie’s” courtroom-artist’s-sketches-gone-crazy cartoons stuck to the wall outside the theatre entry — Frankie’s flattens the fourth wall with a thumping finality.

The result is some of best and most compelling theatre seen in Perth in recent times.

We dropped into Frankie’s for the fifth episode. Chelsea (Libby Klysz, who also directs) and Donovan (Esther Longhurst) were behind the bar. Like the other punters — some stopping to order drinks (really — whiskey sponsor Whipper Snapper Distillery all the way and very good it is too) — we made our way to a table and settled in for the ride.

Keith (Shane Adamczak) isn’t even supposed to be working tonight but chooses to hang out at the bar anyway, much to Chelsea and Donovan’s annoyance. Resident alcoholic Matt (St John Cowcher), resplendent in Hawaiian shirt and tracky dacks, manages to irritate all three staff.

The unscripted banter is by turns hilarious and poignant. There are death and depression. There are spirits of all kinds. When Petrus/Peter (Paul Grabovac) arrives to wait for his Tinder date, the others take turns role-playing the woman who will never in fact arrive. (This, too, provides moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity and unexpected tenderness.)

All the while actor and comedian Chris Bedding (who played a character in a previous episode) and Peter Lane Townsend on keyboards provide an improvised musical commentary on the proceedings, a kind of twisted Greek Chorus.

Bryan Woltjen’s set design and Rhiannon Petersen’s lighting are genius, and as Donovan walks around clearing the tables or taking your order you forget this is theatre. Which is the whole point, in a way. As Klysz writes in her director’s notes, “Frankie’s is a love letter to the places we end up at the end of the night, and the non-blood families we make there”.

Just one warning: if you go see Frankie’s — and you must — like Matt, you’ll find it hard to stop at one. Performance, that is.

Frankie’s runs until December 1. Book at blueroom.org.au.

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