Theatre Review: Is God Is

 The Production: Is God Is by Aleshea Harris

The Company: Melbourne Theatre Company

The Theatre: The Southbank Theatre

Stars: 4

Until 15 July. 

And now for something completely different. 

We went into Is God Is, a play by Aleshea Harris completely blind, which sometimes is a good way to go. There were trigger warnings all over the walls. The play contains references to domestic violence, suicide, violence and medical procedures. Fun. 

As we'd had a delightful meal at Miss Pearl, the restaurant in the foyer, beforehand, so anything on top of this was just a bit extra. You feed me duck fat roast potatoes, you can put any play in front of me and I'll be happy. 

Is God Is. Extra it was. 

I love walking into a theatre where you're presented with a box on the stage. Something's going to happen with that box. You just know it. 

And walking out of the theatre and hour and a half later, a part of me was wondering what the hell I had just seen, the other half was completely enthralled by the production. 

It's dark. It's funny. And it's pretty brutal. All elements which mean I'll generally love a play. 

So what's this about? 

The tagline on the MTC website reads, "How far would you go for revenge?"

In this play, the protagonists go a LONG way.

Racine (Masego Pitso) and Anaia (Henrietta Enyonam Amevor) are twins. They have been badly scarred in a fire when they were young and brought up in the foster system. A letter from their birth mother sends them to find her, where they are then sent on a mission to exact revenge for the act which left all three women badly damaged. 

For the plot, I won't say much more. It's all you need to know. 

I was enthralled from the first minute to the last. This production pulls no punches. It's hard hitting, and visceral in places. 

For me, the stagecraft, the set and the costumes were the as good as the acting. The cast of Australian/African/American actors are fantastic, the American accents were on point and everything worked together seamlessly. This play is very physical in it's action and the actors were more than up to the task. 

Zindzi Okenyo and Shari Sebbens' direction is also on point. There are no gaps in the drama and the dark humour flows with the serious nature of the play.

I loved the costumes which portrayed the girls physical scars to an advantage. It was genius in many ways. 

The set is great. Simple, but extremely effective. The big square box had a number of jobs to do, and it did those tasks with aplomb. 

That we got to see a Melbourne Theatre Company performance without the same lot of actors used for the last twenty years - even better. 

I'm recommending this. It won't be everybody's cup of tea, yet a couple of hours after the performance, I'm still thinking about it. 

It's on point and it's something different. Definitely worth a look. 

(Find The Guardian's review of the play here - they go into a lot more detail about the the whole deal -it says what I want to say in a better way.). 

Today's song: