The Sunny Tribe District | Robert the Cat
Robert the Cat’s The Sunny Tribe District is a camp camping experience that you’ll never forget.
The New Benner Theatre’s stage is set with bold coloured camping tents with various sparkles and sequins hung from the tent poles on Astro turf. When the camp counsellors (Rebecca Day, Darcy Jones, Tiahnee Solien-Bowles, Peter Wood, Jedd Zachery) pop out from their tents and in the most peppy and flamboyant was possible, welcome the audience to Sunny Tribe District; the closest thing to the happiest place on earth.
Rrimming with pop culture references, this cabaret-esque show written and directed by Patrick Mua’a, merges dance, frenetic humour and a heartfelt message to teach the audience about the true meaning of happiness; which is that happiness isn’t always the answer. That allowing yourself to be sad is often the healthiest thing.
The camp counsellors go about implementing this message in arguably damaging methods; including borderline conversion therapy, repressive strategies for quote on quote troubling emotional states and singing your way to happiness. It wasn’t until an outsider enters the camp, masquerading himself as an interest applicant for a counsellor whilst looking for his brother Ken - who is a missing counsellor fun fact - that some of these problematic ideas can get challenged.
The cast were tight knit; not a move or beat out of place in delivering this chaotic script. Each member of the cast effortlessly carried the weight of the responsibility placed on the ensemble. From the Olivia Rodrigo sing-along, to the synchronised, lavish dance sequences to the perky rap battles to the overly sexual demonstration of how to pour water over each other, everything that they threw at us no matter how absurd or obscene was executed to glorious effect.
A stand-out performer was Rebecca Day, who played Kellie with a C and seamlessly merged together a boisterous southern energy with sensitive undertones, while making our bellies ache with laughter from her laser-accurate comic timing and unforgettable ukulele performances.
Whilst I felt that the explanation for the missing camp counsellor broke the established logic of the world and left me feeling unsatisfied and underwhelmed, Sunny Tribe District is a chaotic, feel-good joy ride that will take you away for 90 minutes and return you feeling buzzed.
