KEY POINTS:
All plays require a successful marriage of performer, direction, design and playwright, but for a one-person play it is even more crucial that all elements are in place.
With just one person on stage there is no way to hide a substandard performance and the playwright's words are thrown into sharp relief.
Bombshells at the Musgrove Studio gets only part of the equation right.
Actor-singer Ali Harper is an experienced performer who has honed this play over a regional tour of New Zealand. She gives an energetic and appealing performance playing six women who range from a teenager to a senior citizen.
Although a bit frilly for my tastes, Julian Southgate's set design is feminine and far more ornate than you would expect from a touring show with its wire mannequins, screens, chaise and velvet curtains.
Emily Thomas' costumes give instant clues to the women represented in the play, although I reckon Trinny and Susannah would have a field day making over the six women in the show.
The problem is the play. It is a stinker and too long at two hours including an interval. Joanna Murray-Smith is an Australian playwright whose Female of the Species was performed by Auckland Theatre Company last year.
An attack on feminists such as Germaine Greer, that play raised my suspicions that Murray-Smith is a woman who doesn't like other women.
Bombshells confirms it.
Rather than the feisty, sexy women suggested by the title, Bombshells is a sorry parade of stupid, shallow and downtrodden women.
None is in control of her life and all are victims. They are stereotypes of the worst of female foibles and the humour is offensive to women.
Frankly, with friends like Murray-Smith, we don't need enemies.
