SMOKO - Big Truck Productions
- Feb 6
- 2 min read
Reviewed by Rachel Doulton
Finding love in a small town means slim pickings, even slimmer when you are a queer woman. SMOKO presented by Big Truck Productions and Blue Room Theatre, is described as “high-vis glamour meets queer outback comedy” and is exactly that. Written and performed by Jasmine Story, this show delves into the dumps and trash-piles of self perception and self worth and makes us question our habits of consumption.
Beccy, played by Storey, after a long stint of unemployment, gets a job at the local tip shop and as she sorts through the trash that may become someone else's treasure, she circles around the trash in her own life. Throughout she is discovering why she also feels discarded and forgotten like the rubbish that surrounds her; through interactions with ex-girlfriends, colleagues and her mother (all played hilariously by herself) and monologues during her smoke breaks.
The show cleverly balances crude self deprecating humour with heartfelt poignancy as Beccy orbits the physical manifestation of her perceived worth. Storey’s script does excellently to challenge the audience with Beccy’s honest, unglamorous but incredibly authentic sexuality and juxtaposes it with exposed insecurity. Although hilarious, there could have been a sharpening of the pace with some of the bits played out with the colourful characters that surround Beccy. Most touching was the juxtaposition of her relationship with her mother and her nan; an emotionally neglectful mother played for laughs stings when you later hear Beccy talk with the ghost of her nan.
There is an incredible use of puppetry designed and operated by Claude Creighton that depicts the more earnest moments in Beccy's life. The use of toy trucks, shadows, and a grotesque ghost dog serves to show that beneath the crass veneer, Beccy is desperately trying to reconcile her need to find and grip hold of a deeper connection with just about anyone that comes into her orbit. The lighting reflects this too with Beccy’s outward reality appropriately bright and exposing while her inner life is dark and obscured.
The overall through line of self perception and desperate desire for deep connection in SMOKO, brilliantly calls into question how our rapid consumption and disposal of objects directly influences our modern relationships and how we treat each other. Some let go too soon, others don't let go soon enough; both create landfills within us.
Reviewer Note: Tickets for this review were provided by the theatre company
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