Bella Du Freak

1 November 2013 | 11:02 am | Matthew Ziccone

Constantly somewhere in the middle, it handled its adult content with childish intent and its playful humour with predictability.

A carnival of horrors and intrigue is going to attract the curious but everything about this show felt more like Saturday cartoons than dark and daring theatre. Bella du Freak's concept is interesting enough. First Act is a night watching the freak show; Second Act is behind the scenes, watching the insanity of the ring master slowly destroy the carnival. On paper it sounds engrossing but as the show progressed each performer's act was messy, simple and nowhere near the elements of morbid and scary the ringmaster promised.

1930s America is an incredibly interesting setting, especially for a carnival piece, but with a lot of the writing choices the certainty of period felt under-researched and ill-prepared. Moments that should have been contained and emotional were confusing and rushed, characters jumping from one character's sadness into their own little story. One in particular, a girl losing her baby in a horrible way, had the stage stolen by another actor. And most similar moments were affected in the same way. A lack of clarity in the writing really let this piece down. It was difficult to hear the actors, who were only a few metres away from the audience, and when you did hear them, the content was so clichéd that it was difficult to know if it was trying to be comedy. Constantly somewhere in the middle, it handled its adult content with childish intent and its playful humour with predictability.