34 Scenes About the Weather | Lunch Friend & Anywhere Festival
Lunch Friend’s debut production of 34 Scenes About the Weather is a diverse display of local writing talent that moulded the theme into interesting, clever and surprising stories
When I first read about the shows concept, I was immediately intrigued. A new, experimental piece of theatre that explores a relationship with the weather. How niche, how quirky, how playful. Exactly what my soul needs right now.
All images: Alex Riley
Then I read about all the different playwrights involved with this work, which for me also added to the quirky flavour. As a published playwright myself, I know how minimal opportunities there are for playwrights from varying experience levels to showcase their work to an audience of any kind, especially live ones. So, I was hooked and I was ready for my weather bound adventure.
The weather themed pre-show playlist including Here Comes The Sun, Always Take the Weather and Sunshine of your Love, was the cream of the top of what was a quirky, playful and meaningful exploration of how we often link our memories with the weather forecast of that time.
Directed by Jordan Riley and dramaturged by Blake Hohenhaus, the play featured 34 scenes that investigated the way that weather affects us all, from break ups, beach dates to broken promises. Featuring 34 Playwrights including two of Brisvegas’s treasures David Burton and Claire Christian, each scene had a distinctive tone and voice, even if sometimes the content sometimes overlapped, like the sequence of break up scenes that were directly after each other.
Actors Eliza Allen, Harrison Paroz, Jordan Stott and Grace Teng all had their own unique presence on stage and acting prowess. Even off-stage, when they were manually creating weather sound effects – such a brilliant addition – they carried that presence and watchability with them.
Overall, it was a slice of nostalgia, a looking glass into our own experiences of when we felt vulnerable in the rain, when we wanted to hide under our covers with someone we love, when we wanted to embrace the sun, but were afraid of getting burnt.
With future creative developments on the sequencing of the scenes, I would not be surprised to see this show take on even more life’s and bigger venues.
