Review – Rough Trade – The Violent Romantics

ROUGH Trade is not for the faint hearted.
Think Fight Club meets 1984 meets Big Brother.

Set in the rotten underbelly of a dystopian world, this show delivers 60 odd minutes of power-packed action, both physical and emotional.

The audience are viewers of a reality TV show, ‘Rough Trade’, that thrives on exploiting the lives, secrets and primal desires of it’s participants (just like today’s reality TV).
All six characters, the four fighters, Madam X and her accomplice, are damaged people. Yet, you manage to feel sorry for all of them.
The four fighters are all pit against each other in very physical and stylised (almost Tarantino-esque) fights.

The show’s strengths lie in it’s originality and the ability of the actors to portray these damaged characters.
While the entire cast were very good, Stephanie Theusen (Stud) and Charlotte Moutrey (Tarry) especially stood out for displaying the entire range of their respective characters.

The show is developed by a bunch of young folks form Brisbane, known as The Violent Romantics.
TVR are a talented troupe and I look forward to seeing more challenging and interesting works by them.

Rough Trade is an enthralling piece of theatre and certainly not a ‘date-night’ show, unless you know, this kind of thing works for you.

Heckler recommends that this is a must see show. They’ve only got one more performance left, so don’t miss it.

Pro-tip: Sit right at the front. The action will be ‘in your face’ but that’s the whole point.