Type: Comedy Festival, Weirdly Brilliant, Absurdist Comedy
If You Liked: Lou Wall, Jazz or a Bucket of Blood?
If you were to hold a garage sale, what would you most want to sell? Or would you find yourself visiting other people’s garage sales to purchase a plethora of knick-knacks that you would never use? Perhaps there is something you would be horrified to see being sold, or it’d be a gift to unload all your stuff. Alanah Parkin seeks to answer these questions at the Motley Bauhaus.
Alanah Parkin’s Garage Sale presents itself as the best garage sale in Narre Warren. Garage Sale is a solo work with two main characters and two supporting characters directed by Isaac Haigh. Parkin performs as all four characters, those being Greg and Denise, then Margaret and, of course, Christina Aguilera. There is unscripted audience participation, so each night is different from the other.
There is a lot going on in this Garage Sale. It is a fast-paced performance with twists and turns from each angle. Leave predictability in your cupboard because you will never fathom what happens next. With one performer starring and supporting all four roles on stage, Garage Sale gets creative in how two characters are staged in dialogue. Often this is done through the use of a phone call, off-stage chatter and prerecorded VHS segments, which are all cleverly intertwined. Much praise therefore, must be offered to the efforts that have gone into the sound design. Prerecorded material was used for about half of the performance, yet the direction by Haigh comes together cohesively. Parkin is also an incredible singer, her performance of ‘Genie in a Bottle’ is a wonderful intermission.
The parents of the “Boomer Generation”, also referred to as the “Greatest Generation” and the “Silent Generation” were very different to us now. They retired before Keating brought in superannuation and provided the retirement funds for boomers to buy into the serious suburbs at a pittance. They were also stay puts who detested change. Margaret, who lives in a small granny flat on the Narre Warren property is of this generation. Her character brings a very reserved presence, and I would have liked to have seen a bit more of her. Greg and Denise are of the Boomers, specifically downsizers seeking to leave their Narre Warren lair and move instead to one of those inheritance-robbing retirement villages. The collections they have held onto for decades become relics of their misfortunes. There are memories attached to objects even when they leave the place or period in which the memory is formed – Parkin shows how this we give objects power. When Greg and Denise put theirs and Margaret’s stuff up for sale, they are also putting up the baggage that comes with it. These objects become physical links to their past, memories that they have forgotten and some that they wish they could. I could have sat through many minutes of this performance, and there were certainly aspects of it that could have been explored beyond what the one hour time frame would allow.
When a house that has been a home for fifty years is cleared out, it feels more like an archaeological dig. It can often be the memories themselves we want to pass on. Stories are dug out of boxes and collections are split up. What is also uncovered, is a past that might not want to be found out and this is a good spot to finish and leave you hanging for more.
See our other reviews from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in the link below
Tickets and Practical Info for Garage Sale at MICF 🎟️
Tickets: https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/alanah-parkin-s-garage-sale/
Ticket Prices: $24.81 – $28.86
Time: 5.45pm
Venue: The Motley Bauhaus – Theatrette
Duration: 55 minutesSuitable for audiences 15+: Audience participation, Death and grief, Drug references, Horror, Language – occasional coarse language, Licensed venue: under 18s will only be permitted with a parent or guardian, Political, religious or racial themes, References to or simulation of violence, References to substance abuse, Strobe lighting, Strong sexual references, Sudden loud noises
