Catherine Moore and Genevieve Hegney in Unqualified. Photo: Phil Erbacher
As anyone who has ever set foot in a Centrelink office can testify, it’s not a happy experience. But when Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore, who wrote and star (yes, star!) in Unqualified, meet on their different job quests in such an office, it’s hilarious.
From the opening moments, when Moore and Hegney take it in turns to be the hapless interrogee and officious interrogator, the audience is on side. And laughing.
Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore in UNQUALIFIED at Ensemble Theatre. Photo: Phil Erbacher
As the title suggests, neither of these capable women are qualified in terms of relevant pieces of paper. One has had a gutful of being a butcher and wants to get away from the family butchery business without hurting her dad’s feelings; the other is escaping a gutless celebrity about to-be-bankrupt and philandering husband.
Finding no joy at Centrelink, Joanne Truebody (Hegney) and Felicity Bacon (Moore) are literally thrown into each other’s arms and resources. The solution: start their own temp agency. The problem: find staff to fill vacancies. The next solution: Joanne and Felicity are unqualified to be event organisers, relief teachers, childcare workers (although probably overqualified to be human impersonators of Lotto balls, but Moore has had experience in this!), but in they plunge, living out their insecurities, rages and hopes on stage for our considerable, laugh-out-loud entertainment.
The humour is sharp, at times physical, verging on the slapstick. Under Janine Watson’s direction, this 90-minute two-hander works very well and the set (Simon Greer) is simple and has its own humour, courtesy of the backdrop of no-hoper job ads.
That Moore and Hegney are friends in real life, and clearly know each other very well, obviously benefits the characters they portray, especially in a play where the underlying theme is one of female friendship and resilience. Unqualified is an easy, fun night at the theatre. Pure entertainment.
Unqualified is at the Ensemble Theatre until July 21.
