Presented by Heartspace Theatre Company
@ AC Arts, 39 Light Square
TUESDAY 13th March (until 17 March)

Take some mentally ill patients (stay with me here), throw in the political hustle and bustle of the early 70’s, mix thoroughly with Italian opera and bake with undertones of love and philosophy on fidelity.

And there you have Louis Nowra’s Australian comedy classic, Cosi.

For those of you who aren’t suffering through year twelve drama, Cosi is Nowra’s semi autobiographical tale of recent graduate Lewis (Benjamin Goodyear), who, out of the cash-poor desperation that only university students can understand, takes up a job directing a play in a mental hospital’s theatre with its patients as his actors.

The patients themselves are assorted, zany, at times tragic and completely disconnected from the world outside, which contrasts nicely with Lewis’ anti-Vietnam, politico friends who espouse all the radical movement of the time.

Before Lewis really knows what he’s gotten into, production starts on Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutti except that his new cast can’t sing, or act, or dance, and certainly can’t speak Italian!

Naturally, worlds collide, hilarity abounds and everyone (well, most of them) grows and become better people, et cetera, et cetera.

The Heartspace Theatre Company originally formed from the eagerness of students and a teacher from Sacred Heart College to pursue their love of all things theatre post-classroom. Twelve years and fifteen productions later, the Company are no strangers to either the Adelaide Fringe nor to the all-year-round theatre scene.

Their offering in Cosi this year is well-worth a watch; firstly because the Nowra has given them great material to work with and the script in itself is brilliant and secondly, and more importantly, because the cast is seasoned and has attacked their performance with mad enthusiasm.

Director Greg Hay has excelled in putting together well-cast, fun ensemble and creating a world of magnificent music, triumph and one where you don’t always know where the asylum walls are drawn.

Goodyear maturely executes the lead role, granting us a delightful performance as the super sane Lewis working with an insane world.

Special gold stars to Laura Arjona for her endearing performance as the trippy social worker amd Justine and Matt Trainor for making possible neurotic personality disorder patient Roy both exasperating and likeable at the same time.

Together the troupe had many splutters of greatness and seriously good chemistry in the first act before truly coming into their own in a laugh-out-loud second act. Quiet, dreamy scenes between Lewis and recovering junkie Julie (Rochelle Burrows) are a sweet highlight against the chaos.

The dynamics of scenes with chaos are full of energy, and dialogue bounces from character to character with ease.

The simply but appropriately decorated main theatre of the Adelaide College of Arts is a nice fit for the Company and thrived on its sold-out opening night audience. Props should also be given for an incredibly, professionally smooth sound, lighting and general management job (well done sound lady Kathy Klement and stage manager Melissa Burke).

Cosi is warm, fun, satisfying and definitely will not disappoint fans of the play or its subsequent 1996 movie.

Get yourself along if theatre is your taste and enjoy a pool-room worthy Australian classic brilliantly reiterated by an experienced South Australian Company.

You’d be crazy not to!

(Yeah, sorry…).