Powder Room

Powder Room has all the potential to lean into the well-worn tropes of its narrative style but it never quite reached its own expectations,

In a nightclub bathroom, new friends are made, revelations are discovered and many, many, many drugs are taken – all leading to a crucible of interconnected lives and highly strung emotions

Tuia Suter and Bella Moretto’s writing is unfortunately structurally cliche and unimaginative – relying on a juvenile roundabout of seemingly innovative themes of drugs, relationships, vaping, friendship and peeing politics, all of which end up tired and lacking in any kind of depth.

Suter and Moretto also serve as director of the work, with the direction lacking the control needed to keep the work’s pace rapid and drive the story. Instead each moment is left to exhaustingly drag and characters allowed become two dimensional cyphers that end up saying very little.

Amelia Dunn, Amelia Nemet, Dezi Boyle, Ez Kenworthy, Luce Wirthensohn and Xepheren Jaadwa perform each character with a sense of relatability – audiences know these individuals, they’ve met them in bathrooms and dance floors, but these characters end up arguing over trivial problems.

The ensemble never seem to settle into the space, rather they make superficial choices and “act” each moment apposed to rusting in their instincts.