Saturday Boy
An entertaining start to the afternoon. Sarah wakes up, tied to a toilet, her ex-boyfriend Gordon in the room singing his own rendition of 'My Girl'. The pair had reunited at Sarah's birthday party, after Gordon received a "faceless invitation" on Facebook. It's a solid, strong 10 minutes with great performances from both Rowan McDonald and Anita Whelan.

Hair!
One of the best plays I've seen take on the Short & Sweet Festival in recent years. Funny, on the ball and entertaining, the play explores social expectations and pop culture through, as the title suggests, hair. It all starts when Steve decides to surprise his wife by shaving his, well, you can fill in the blanks. The action ends up at a dinner between Steve, his wife and another couple, who discuss fantasies, expectations and desires. Even an unexpected gaffe involving a wine glass during the performance added to the fun - a five star effort, here.

How To Write A Play [pictured]
A trifecta of good plays is completed with this one, written by Nic Lewis (who also stars in the piece as Chico). It's a fun play about two men discussing what they hate about everything from film to theatre, particularly the latter. It evolves into a funny, smart and quirky piece that is well deserving of its spot in the Wildcards.

Nowhere
The title of this one is quite ironic, really, as this play does indeed end up going nowhere. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's not very good. There's some good direction from Sarah Enright, and even some solid acting from Elouise Blair and Daniel Maloney, but the script lets the piece down and never reaches any great height.

Shuffle Off
An interesting look at a man's final moments on earth, and his mission to find the right words to say to the one he loves. This is a thoroughly entertaining play with strong acting performances from Stephen Hodge, Anthony Slater and Brooke Martin. Colin Donald's play is far from the best of this bunch but it's by no means the worst and is 10 minutes well spent.

Starshmucks
Not really a play, more a series of comic sketches from the daily life of a 'familiar' coffee house. The customers are bizarre, the workers get more and more frustrated and not much coffee ever gets drunk. There are a few genuinely amusing moments, but the only throughline seems to be that customers are annoying and ordering coffee is more complicated in modern society than ever. As such, the whole piece is disjointed and suffers from some serious lags in action.

The Gap
A really clever piece told from the perspective of two fish, trapped in a fishbowl and desperate for food. The longevity of the entertainment in this piece relies on how long it takes you to work out the twist - if you've figured it out in the first minute or so it's a little tiring but if you have managed to keep guessing, the final few minutes will be golden.

Turning The Tide
Another great play in a Wildcards afternoon that was definitely worth seeing. This one focuses on two couples at different periods of their lives, but facing the same complications and difficulties. Some really good acting performances exist here, primarily from Emma Maye Gibson (Young Lana). There's some very smart direction from Melissa Qutami, too.

Waiting For The Rain
First-time playwright Amanda le Bas de Plumetot delivers a nice piece of work, though it doesn't really go anywhere and doesn't appear to have a strong message. Still, it's enthralling thanks to its essential 10 minute monologue from young Rebecca Stock.

Playback Impro
A small taste of what Playback Theatre present at the Newtown Theatre each month. Thank God it's only a small taste. This is a painful 10 minutes, and unlike a lot of improvised theatre out there, doesn't have a "wow" factor. A disappointing period of the afternoon.

Written Off
Not a terrible play but in contrast to some of the other high quality productions presented during this series of Wildcards, it's a disappointment. It doesn't go anywhere, it's unoriginal and it's basically just a time-filler.