Bread [pictured]
The first play of this pared-down session of S&S features email correspondence between two bakers. One is in Australia, the other in Iraq. The two trade personal stories and political insults as they dodge bombshells of both a real and metaphorical nature. It’s not easy grappling with the Big Issues in a short play, but writer Randy Gross makes a go of it.

Poetic License
What starts as a seemingly innocuous conversation between a couple of mates turns out to be the basis of the Greatest Love Story Ever Told ™. I like Peter Lewis’ idea – the script could benefit from a bit of a rewrite, and the performances could be a little more animated.

Surprises
Surprises is a monologue by an angry, angry clown. As if clowns weren’t scary enough. The performance is very, very good. The story telling aspect is overwhelmed by emotion and obscure references, and could be a touch clearer.

The Gay Hangman
Meet the gay hangman! Likes: Well Hung magazine, leather and mincing. Dislikes: Stereotypes. Entertaining writing and over the top performances by both the hangman and his twitchy, serial nutter of a client (Ant Sullivan and Peter Aoun) had me wondering, not for the only time this afternoon, why this didn’t make it into the main season.

The Night The Widget Broke
This occasionally amusing piece, eerily reminiscent of The Dish, was most notable for the uncredited performance of its sole performer. Amanda Lees (if I remember her name correctly) was called in at the last minute and gave a great performance as a phone operator in 1960’s Australia.

The Perfect Batch
This play was mysteriously MIA.

The Pseudo-Praisers
A lesson in how to read between the lines of your friends’ comments about your latest creative endeavour. Good writing by Karina Bracken and great performances by the large cast.

What’s The Big Issue?
Like Bread, this piece suffers a little from the difficulty of trying to explore a Big Issue (in this case, what it’s like selling The Big Issue) in such a short period of time. Nevertheless it’s an admirable attempt that could do with a bit of polishing.

Dialogue
This play won the Central Coast version of S&S. The dialogue in question takes place between a gatecrasher and a young woman at a party. Entertaining enough, but the dialogue didn’t seem to be remarkable enough, considering what one character almost claimed to be, and what the other character actually was.

100 Years
An interesting take on black-white relations, appropriate given the Big Event in parliament a few days before this performance. Writer Bob Tissott plays with some interesting ways of telling a difficult story, but again this Big Issue suffers from the time limit. This big and complex story feels a little oversimplified.

Sirrah
Seriously, why didn’t this make it into the main season? Great writing by Karlis Zaid about a Shakespeare fanatic’s attempts to interact with the modern world. The contrast between the Shakespearian Speech and Business Speak is particularly good; both are on similar levels of incomprehensibility. Very funny.