Review by Jake Goodall
Instagram, swearing and bundles of pink! That’s what to expect when walking into this poppy, flashy production.
Walking into this production is like stepping into the land of influencers and Instagram itself. Complete with ladies in beautiful lingerie, roses aplenty, and digital and print art everywhere. The vibes are spot on even before the show begins!
The key message of this production is “show me something real”. Post-disaster, melted ice-cream in hand, and bleeding @bloomgirl, a disillusioned artist with a niche web comic, is waiting to be seen in a hospital emergency room.
Tied up in knots of likes and filters, @bloomgirl’s carefully curated online persona is about to spectacularly collide with the IRL, culminating in a digital melt-down that breaks her tiny pocket of the internet permanently. But it may just be real enough to matter to the right people. Alice in a dark digital wonderland, @bloomgirl tells a riotous and sacrilegious tale about love and acceptance in a world of influencers who care more about your follower count than what
you have to say.
The set design by Charli Burrowes crafts a perfectly aesthetic production that accurately assists in the telling of Bloom Girls’ story. Burrowes’s set consists of 4 black boxes with neon lights in the shapes of @, # and like symbols as well as a fantastic white sign of Bloom Girl’s memoirs (which then gets changed to Bloom C*NT, you’ll have to see the show to find out!).
Elise Lamb directs this production written by Charli Burrowes who also co-produced the show and performs in it. The direction is masterful; subtle and calming, articulately portraying the inner turmoil experienced by Bloom Girl. Burrowes’ writing is occasionally difficult to follow but with careful listening the audience can understand the story with ease.
The characters are skillfully brought to life by Burrowes and Lamb. Drawing the audience into the changing journey of Bloom Girl. One way to extend the impact of this production would be to push the limits even further when it comes to characterisation – really challenge the audience to experience the changes with Burrowes.
The Lighting Design by Ryan McDonald is one of the highlights of this production, simple yet
effective McDonald utilises area lighting to portray each setting for Bloom Girl’s story. The stage is filled with beautiful blues, purples and pinks which is very reminiscent of colorful Frank Green water bottles. McDonald is a talented designer and Bloom Girl is another show to add to their belt of fantastic shows.
Rounding out the technical and production team is Millie Tang as Artist/Photographer, Bart Hassam as Artist/Floral Designer, Sarah Laidlaw as Hair/Make Up, Martelle Simon-Green as Assistant Director, Mikayla Hosking as Stage manager, Set Construction by Ramzi Matta, Video by Indigo Pesu and a fabulous Original Score composed by Benjamin Andrew and arranged by Rhonda Davidson-Irwin.
It is clear that a lot of creativity has been injected into this production by some fantastically talented people. With a little bit of extra development, Bloom Girl could be something truly spectacular. Overall, Bloom Girl is an excellent, creative piece of art that touches on some really poignant points integral to this day and age. All that’s left to say is BRAVO!
Bloom Girl runs until the 11th of February at the Thomas Dixon Centre. Get tickets here.
Bravo Brisbane 