The Second Woman

Billed as a "mesmerising 24-hour performance in which the artist invites one hundred men to star opposite her", The Second Woman was one of those quirky additions to the Dark Mofo festival line-up that sounded like it could go either way, but for a measly $10 on the door ticket more than a few punters thought it would be worth the risk. The queue waiting for the doors to open to the intimate Peacock Theatre proved I wasn't the only person who was curious.

While I sat in the audience I researched John Cassavetes' American movie Opening Night that the play was based on and was interested to read that Cassavetes was the actor who starred opposite Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby, one of my all time favourite movies. Cassavetes was also a screenwriter and director who self-financed his own movies, preferring to shoot with hand-held cameras in a documentary style, allowing little-known actors to give their own interpretation of difficult characters - going against the grain of big Hollywood productions, he was a filmmaker who really started the ball rolling in terms of independent movie making.

To be honest I don't want to give too much away in this review - discovering what's going on is part of the charm and absolute joy of the experience. The concept of the show by the actress who stars in it, Nat Randall is pure brilliance, as is the direction (Anna Breckon and Nat Randall), set design (Future Method Studio), lighting (Amber Silk) and sound design (Nina Buchanan).

Being a twenty-four hour performance, for the $10 ticket the audience was allowed to come and go as they pleased and it was so fun to watch - stylish, elegant, voyeuristic and retro-chic - that many did just that, popping back in at 1am to see what was going on. The actress, repeating the same scene and unavoidably growing progressively tired as time wore on, only added to the magic and realism of her character who in the movie is a functioning alcoholic, an actress struggling to find a way to make the show go on.

The Second Woman, both quirky and clever, is one of the gems of 2017's Dark Mofo festival.