Happy winners celebrate with presenters and festival founder Mark Cleary (end right)
Short + Sweet, the world’s biggest short play festival, delivered an interesting selection of short plays this year with a quirky movement-based piece taking out first prize last Saturday night at the Seymour Centre.
People Strings: Hilary Park, Jo Ford and Callan Purcell
After a nine-week season showcasing 170 ten-minute plays selected from more than 1000 submitted from across Australia and internationally, Short+Sweet Sydney 2013 concluded with 12 of the best strutting their stuff one last time in front of industry judges including Federal Labor MP Peter Garrett, former frontman of Midnight Oil.
The gala finals featured the winning “Top 80” play from each week (chosen by industry judges) plus the winner and audience favourite from the People’s Choice Showcase and the winner and audience favourite from the Wildcards program.
The winners shared more than $20,000 in prizes.
The award for Best Production went to People Strings (Newcastle), written and directed by Jo Ford. This beautifully choreographed piece follows a male (Callan Purcell) and a female (Jo Ford) from their first chance meeting into the superficial chaos of a relationship as it toys with the idea that maybe fate (in the guise of a passerby played by Hilary Park) is as flawed as we mere mortals.
Tom Green outfoxed by hunter James Hartley
Another big winner on the night was The Fox And The Hunter, a witty exchange about existence and survival between a fox (Tom Green) and a hunter (James Hartley). Melbourne playwright Simon Godfrey was awarded Best Script for the play, Hartley walked away with the Best Director prize while Green won the Best Actor award.
Melbourne’s Lucy Gransbury also made a big impact as the insanely delusional Romanian wife and mother Livia Bistriceanu in the last play of the night, Dragostea Mea. Gransbury wrote, directed and performed this whacky piece which features a woman in full bridal wear speaking of her burning love for former husband Heath Ledger and current husband Leo Di Caprio. She took home the Best Actress award.
Bride Lucy Gransbury with her ‘baby’
Mitchell Fitzpatrick was voted Best New Talent for his portrayal of dad, mum, son and daughter in The Coffee Table, written and directed by Fitzpatrick and Nathan O’Keefe. The Campbelltown duo’s clever tale of a young man (Rhys Cohen) who inspects a room for rent in a family home where he is treated to some surprise exchanges with the characters who live there also won the People’s Choice award.
Wildcards winner was Coburg writer Adele Shelley’s Weeing on a Stick about an older woman dating a younger man and her fear (or is that hope?) that she might be pregnant. Kieran Foster and Ali Crew starred in this very contemporary comedy that was directed by Angela Blake.
