An interesting premise but underwhelming performance.
CHAMPIONS, produced by Little Goat Arts & Entertainment, leaves a lot to be desired. Making its Australian premiere in the Old Fitz Theatre‘s New Works Festival, its narrative and themes can be compelling. But slow pace and limited energy make the show dull.
The story is interesting, on paper. Four artists compete for a prestigious $50,000 prize. Winning would elevate their careers to new heights. Given six months to conceptualise and craft their submission, the toil of their respective processes takes its toll. With themes including sexual assault and eating disorders, CHAMPIONS should explore the toxic workings of the art industry and the impact this has on artists.
It only sort of does. The script, courtesy playwright Isabella McDermott, spends excessive time on exposition. It divided into a series of lengthy monologues and vignettes where each character describes their individual experience. These are mostly delivered to the audience rather than the other characters. Such experiences are not always interesting nor add thematic value. For example, Claudia (Cat Dominguez) is a shy and reserved artist. Her character is mainly a foil and love interest to Howie (Lincoln Vickery), the quartet’s everyman. Their character arcs are limited beyond this. On the other end of the spectrum is the confident and outgoing Emmy (Talitha Parker) and rich prat Fraser (Bayley Prendegast). These two characters are more engaging, undergoing interesting transformations and showcasing high art’s toxicity.
Parker and Prendegast perform admirably. They act with vulnerability and heart, sifting through McDermott’s prose to find the key moments in their character’s stories. This is less the case for Dominguez and Vickery, whose characters are not complex enough. McDermott’s script says a lot about its characters but not enough about its themes, meaning there are frequently occasions where the play drags on and misses the nuances it should have explored.
Bali Padda‘s direction of the play is static and boring. The cast mainly stand in one spot to deliver their lines. Rare instances of movement seem forced and weird. Longer monologues made attention wane, jokes never quite landed, and it became hard to hear the actors over rain outside. Production elements do little to diffuse this; lighting design courtesy Tim Hope and composition/sound design from Prema Yin add some vibrancy, but neither are employed often enough to dispel the paucity of the on stage action. Padda’s dreary direction means audiences are simply left to wait for the next character to take their position, say their line, and give way to another character over and over again for 80 minutes.
Ultimately, CHAMPIONS lacked any sense of energy or urgency and could never establish either. A real shame, given how interesting the subject matter could have been.
