V. O. S. is a sui-generis romantic comedy directed by Spanish film maker Cesc Gay and based on the eponymous stage play. The movie is bilingual, spoken both in Spanish and Catalan, with a few sentences in Basque, and has a broken narrative with mirror-like happenings. It is a movie within a movie that shows the filming of the relationship and love story of two couples, who are the actors in the movie; they are playing both their own past personal story, the writing of the same, and its filming. Entangling!
Ágata Roca plays Clara, a single independent woman who says that she wants independence and an independent relationship but thrives for a traditional love story. Paul Berrondo plays Manu, Clara's best friend and father of her first child to be, who is sure about their relationship. Andrés Herrera is Anders, Manu's best friend, a freelance movie-writer and University teacher in a traditional relationship but unwilling to commit. Vicenta N'Dongo is Vicky, Anders' down-to-earth committed and serious girlfriend, who tries to step forward in their relationship. All of them play their respective roles with great freshness and empathy with their characters. The participation of the filming crew as themselves adds lots of charm to the movie, as they are incorporated into the story and not presented as mere workers.
The movie is very enjoyable, engaging and fresh, but also confusing. The main downs of the movie are three. The first is that the story is too theatrical, the weight of the studio around being overly present, and one feels the need for more outdoors scenes and some interaction with other people and characters, like their families, friends, or co-workers. The second, and most important, is that the fringes between the three story-within-the-story moments are not clearly defined since the beginning, and it takes a bit too long for the viewer to realize which part is which. Until you get the Aha moment the movie feels absurd and pretentious. It can easily discourage mainstream viewers. Finally, the drawing of the characters is a bit stereotypical. On one hand, it really highlights many of the problems that settled couples find in their mid 30s and the contradictions of human relationships, but on another you wonder that, if the characters are not actors why are they filming a movie? There is lack of internal logic in the film or that logic is not well-presented to the viewer.
Despite everything, I found the movie very enjoyable and intriguing, a mix between a Hollywood love story and one of Charlie Kauffman's approaches to film-making and film-writing. Original, fresh and entertaining, but also confusing.
The Blue Room Theatre is what any alternative avant-garde theatre needs to be - a place where the interaction between the actors and the public is immediate, so close that you can touch and smell the actors, where the nature of the shows is always independent, experimental, and intimate, The problem with the immediacy and the intimacy is that, if you start to snooze everybody is going to see you, that if you don't like what is going on there is no escape out until the recess, that if you have a coughing attack, well, the function is disrupted.
The staff are all very friendly and young, and very cute.
The toilets need to be refurbished and redecorated, really! So unglamorous for my royal bottom. No no no!
I have always found taking alcoholic drinks to a theatre room an oddity. Can't we watch anything without a drink or something? Does our brain need to be conveniently boozed to enjoy anything in this country?
It always shocks me that the WA Arts scene, and the BRT, seems to be attended by, mostly, +55y.o. people, retires and couples. Perhaps this is just my experience. Although some nights quite young trendy people seem to be around, that is rarely the case. This is not theatre for the masses or mainstream theatre, so where are all those WAAPA students, Art students and those hypsters who pretend to be such a thing? Ahh, yes, in the usual mainstream booze booths or eateries among the vulgus. I find it a very bad indication of the artistic soul of this city, really, that young people seem to have little interest in independent art shows unless you go to the hipster place where you go, mostly, because it is where you get your stamp of approval as a hipster. So very mainstream... really.
Please go to the Blue Room. It is the best way to watch theatre in Perth, and the best way to watch theatre in general, costs a trifle (especially if you subscribe), it won't take much or your time, and you'll get an unique experience in a theatre of which Perthites should be very proud,
Listen carefully... it could even enlarge your brain, and even even even... your erogenous parts... Just give it a try. If it doesn't work for you, you are, officially, culturally impotent. Ha!
Did You know that, if you are a poor person and still want to attend a performance here, you can volunteer as an usher and get your ticket gratis?
Call them at 08 9227 7005
Bear in mind that you can get cheaper prices if you subscribe to 4 or 8 shows, or even cheaper if you become a member. Thus, this season ticket prices go from $20 concession, to $25 full priced, but if you are a member you pay 15 and 20 respectively, and even cheaper if you go on a group of + 8 people as you get your seat for just 15 bucks.
