Lore-Dy Me (Rugululee) | The Irish Club | Until Jan 22 | ★ ★ ★ ½
The brilliant thing about Fringe World is that it has space for all types of works, from the blindingly spectacular to the wonderfully adorable. Lore-Dy Me (Rugululee) is most certainly the latter.
It’s a charming piece of theatre created by SpaciallyBi, an emerging theatre company who specifically focus on social issues surrounding the LGBTIQA+ community. They also have the panache to incorporate mythology into their work, those landmark cornerstones of storytelling that – when reinvented – add sublime magic to our modern era.
Lore-Dy Me (Rugululee) follows the adventures of flower shop employee Evan, who is asked to deliver carnations to a mysterious address. Unbeknownst to Evan, he is about to become an unwitting pawn in a plot by the denizens of The Underworld (also referred to as Rugululee). Once contractually obligated to stay for a month, Evan (or Prince Evan as he becomes known) finds himself faking his way through the peculiar customs and traditions of Rugululee. And he does so masterfully.
He also falls in love. And not just with any old soul, although Abyss – the God of Death – is potentially the oldest soul any of us will all eventually for fall for… when the times comes. What blossoms between Prince Evan and Abyss is equal parts awkward and cute. I mean… the God of Death is himself still getting over the death of his lover, Dorothea, murdered at the hands of humans. And Prince Evan, underneath all the garb and fakery, is still human.
What makes Lore-Dy Me (Rugululee) so damn cute is the fact that SpaciallyBi have seemingly created a mythological realm of their own imagining, borrowing from different elements of European culture to create a story that is quite wondrous. There is even a hint that there might be other instalments: such vision should be applauded.
Abyss steals the show. The actor playing him fully leans into the camp presence of his character, his mannerisms totally on point. And the whole production has this wry camp sensibility that lends it charm. It could be suggested that some of the actors could project a little more and play on the absurdity or farce of the work.
Lore-Dy Me (Rugululee) isn’t overtly polished and perfect, but it doesn’t need to be: this is Fringe, a place where such works deservedly are given the opportunity to be seen. And I do encourage young people and those with an interest in mythology to check this play out. Yes, it is a little clunky, but that’s what makes it so utterly endearing and cute.
Catch this show at Fringe World until 22nd January, tickets on sale now.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell (SPM) is a non-binary performance poet and writer with over 20 years review experience. SPM appears in Contemporary Australian Poetry, won the 2019 Wollongong Short Story Prize and has created such stage works as The 24 Hour Performance Poem.
 a charming piece of theatre created by an emerging theatre company who focus on social issues surrounding the LGBTIQA+ community.){kind=link}