Sweeties theatre review: Playing the game
Ella Hope-Higginson and Brynley Stent turn a dream game show into an unhinged battle of friendship, gender expectations and the absurdity of competition
Excitedly chatting in the front row seats before the show, two girls are pulled from the crowd. In twin red scrunchies, Ella Hope-Higginson and Brynley Stent squeal in glee at having been chosen to compete in the game show of their dreams. Yet, trapped by the confining, ever-watching crowd in The Den at Dom Polski Centre, the whole thing is soon revealed as a futile nightmare.
A masterful blend of physical comedy and disarming moments of existentialism, Sweeties explores the relationship between two female friends turned competitors in sadistically unrelenting and absurd challenges. Each time one of them proves to be better (or ‘bestest’), the other's sanity slips. Under the veil of their slapstick presentation, Hope-Higginson and Stent perfectly embody the desperation to win, brilliantly depicting what it is to perform gender expectations for the promise of reward, only to find no reward will satiate their need to deserve one.
Though focusing primarily on expectations typically associated with women, Sweeties' genius is its broader applicability. The show starkly reminds us that what we all do is informed by a reward-based system and that we only ever try to exit the system once the rewards stop. Yet in Sweeties, there is a glimmer of hope: perhaps laughing at the absurdity of competition takes away the need to play the game at all.
Sweeties concluded March 7 at The Den in Dom Polski Centre.