The ensemble in Marissa Landy’s new play provide some guaranteed belly laughs
Looking to witness your heterosexual friends crash out at a music festival, but for a fraction of the price and twice the fun? Marissa Landy’s new play Buzzfest has you covered, with guaranteed giggles and a good time. Following a full weekend at the titular fictional festival, the audience are introduced to a friendship group on the rocks, but nonetheless intent on having a good time. Whilst the story is told mainly through the eyes of couple Jason (Tafadzwa Phillip Madubek) and Daisy (Georgia Dye), the full ensemble make a real name for themselves in this energising production. Where the script offers some good structure and introspective moments, the actors breathe genuine energy and hilarity in between.
Tom Feasby’s performance as Jordan has to be a standout of the night. His delivery is immaculate, capturing the full attention of the audience for every moment he spoke. This fits his role as Jordan, the kind of friend in a group who can go on rambles and tell long stories maintaining everyone’s attention. Whilst his boisterousness is clear, there’s also a tenderness to his performance seen in moments towards the latter half of the play. Marnie Yule and Alistair Rowley also played a very believable couple as Lisa and Marvin. Their rapport felt both unusual and completely sensical, helped by consistencies like every time Marvin sternly ordered her to pass him a beer, Lisa saying “no”, him responding meekly “okay.” Details like this made them feel familiar to one another. Yule’s performance was bold, and Rowley brought so much infectious enjoyment into his performance.
The play merges film and theatre together, something which sometimes worked really well with some good directional choices. For example, having a video of Daisy and Jason inside their tent whilst Marvin pissed on their tent onstage was an excellent directional choice, and it is moments like these I wish to see more of. The films assisted with worldbuilding, although it would have been nice to see some vignettes of their time spent inside the main arena onstage. The set was good, gradually getting messier over the course of the weekend, though a different staging choice would perhaps allow for the space to be utilised a little more. With Joe’s tent and some dialogue taking place at the back of the room, it would have been nice to see this clearer and be positioned, as an audience member, to imagine the space more dynamically. The play would have a stronger ending too, if it happened on stage rather than on screen.
Some of the films ran a little long too, a criticism I shared with the rest of the production. Several scenes, especially the ones between Daisy and Jason, need trimming where there is repetition or not enough expansion. Editing the play to make it more of a 90 minutes (or less) showing would make for a far more snappier piece, and with this I think Buzzfest has the potential to be a very strong showing with such an excellent ensemble.