Stage shorts

It’s no secret that the best drama to be found in any theatre is what goes on behind the scenes, out of the audience’s sight.

So consider what must be going on in the dressing rooms during Short & Sweet, when 150 new plays and musicals are staged in the one festival.

The world’s biggest short play festival commences 15 January in performance spaces at the Seymour Centre, NIDA Parade Playhouse and the Newtown Theatre.

Actor Richard Mason, who is performing in two plays of this festival, reveals the dressing rooms and backstage are indeed where the greatest performances take place.

Some of these plays have huge casts, and there are so many plays going on at the same time, so the comings and goings all night are pretty amazing, he says. It is a hotbed of talent and creative ideas.

Short & Sweet is such a great showcase for writers and gives them a toe into the industry, and lets them try something new. You see so many good people starting out and it is a pretty exciting place to be.

The 140 plays and 10 musicals which make up this year’s Short & Sweet have been selected from 1,200 entries. All plays must follow the same guidelines -“ they must not be longer than 10 minutes.

Mason, who is also a TV reporter for the ABC and SBS, is making his fourth appearance at Short & Sweet with this year’s festival. He appeared last year in Hamlet, Alex Broun’s The Critic, and in another Broun play The Gift Of The Gun for Pink Shorts, the festival’s Mardi Gras offshoot.

This year, Mason is tackling two very different roles in The Humpty Doo Tragedy and 9/11 The Conspiracy: The Musical. In the play, he is a drinker at a country pub, warning the other patrons of the dangers of drinking, while in the musical he takes on the role of former UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan.

The story in the Humpty Doo pub is based on a true incident, while the musical is a satirical piece, he says.

It points out the hypocrisies of the world and all the close associations between the Bush family and the Saudi Arabians before the 9/11 attacks.

Short & Sweet commences 15 January. Details are at the festival’s website, with bookings at the MCA Tix website.