2014 Melbourne Comedy Festival:
• After Ever After—Rama Nicholas
Posted on 30 March 2014
Rama Nicholas is one of the finest actors treading the Melbourne Comedy Festival stages. This theatrical gem should be getting so much more support for the talent, skills, and hard work she puts into her magical and engaging shows.
Nicholas’s current production, After Ever After, plays with the concept of what happens to fairytale characters after the story we know: what happens after Hansel & Gretel escape the witch, after Snow White marries Prince Charming, and after Red Riding Hood defeats the wolf. All this set in a delightfully anachronistic world.
What makes Nicholas’s performances special is the exquisite detail which goes into her characterisations. This is a one woman show and yet she brings each character to life with thorough back stories, emotional complexity, well realised intellectual outlooks, vocal variety, and distinctive body language. Every character has a chance to express their wants and needs such that we care about their fates.
Nicholas’s world of “once upon a time” has a lot of charm. Her subject matter called out for deeper exploration in the way Sondheim’s Into The Woods does. But comedy festival shows tend to be constrained by the one hour format.
I would like to see Rama Nicholas move beyond the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Her works need to be seen in venues such as Chapel Off Chapel, The Malthouse, even The Arts Centre Melbourne. In these spaces she would have the room to grow as a storyteller and get the recognition she deserves. With her experience she would have a good chance at getting government funding to tour major world art centres.
We support our sports heroes in this country, paying them to compete in the UK, Russia, etc. We need to support our artistic heroes as well. Rama Nicholas is one of those heroes.
Tickets:
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2014/season/shows/after-ever-after-rama-nicholas
Peace and kindness,
Katherine
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