Theatre Review: Snart by Luka Piripi

Written and performed by Luka Piripi, ‘Snart’ opened on 3 June at the Basement Theatre, where it will be performed until 7 June. Craccum received the opportunity to watch and review this genre-bending, absurdist, humorous exploration of the lived reality of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

When the doors opened, the audience was welcomed in by Luka singing Call Me Maybe on loop. Had the show already begun? No, of course not, not officially, but already the tone for it was set. Expect a lot of things happening and leaving you laughing or pondering or doing both at once. Call Me Maybe gave way to Poker Face, and just as Poker Face was switched out for My Immortal, the doors were closed, and the show began. Probably for the best, as I am not sure how I would’ve fared going into brain-rot humour of this kind after a full listen of My Immortal.

As foreseen, lot of things did begin happening immediately, with Luka Piripi, our titular Snart (though the audience was not yet judged worthy of knowing her name!), taking stage and immediately assuming control of the space. Luka performs brilliantly, all her dialogue snappy and hilarious to all but herself, for she stays straight faced and vaguely German-accented. Her gaze engages with the audience and pulls us in from the get-go. ‘Snart’ is a solo performance, with all other character appearances either projections or voices. Even we, the audience, receive ‘instructions’ projected to us at points. The animations – done by Mark Chayanat Whittet alongside director Sean Riviera – that form Snart’s world are loose and hilarious, reminding me of in-show segments from things like Pop Team Epic (apologies for not having any other examples on hand – it is too specific), and suiting the absurdist tone to a T.

A painting professor dressed in white overalls, Snart was born to parents and spent her childhood growing up in some place. More important, however, was her artistic skill and technique, with which she created her masterpiece – a sniff of the canvas, some bastardised tai-chi bonded with a Tekken move list exclusive to her, and voila! A self portrait appeared. All artists must create with a ritual of their own, after all. Over the course of the play, this portrait is a painting no more – she gains life for reasons unknown, and becomes a person in her own right. While Snart goes to therapy, her class, the club, and therapy again, this painting gains sentience and a name. Meet Bonker.

For the unreal character element in this performance, Bonker is the one character who feels more grounded than anyone else around her. She has seriousness and a kind of depth to her that escapes from the general absurdity surrounding her – it also makes you forget she’s naked. It’s very significant that things play out with her in a role that asks Snart for vulnerability and introspection, considering she started out as her self portrait and ended up her lover. As the painfully self-centred Snart – who has pictures of herself hung up on her walls, including a gravure shot – runs from her NPD diagnosis all while suffering from loneliness, Bonker tries to help. How much, though, can a painting do?

Populated by a colourful cast – characters like Snart’s ex, Galrox the Unrelenting, who is a few centuries old and has a day job torturing people, a nurse that asks for life histories and talks over receiving autobiographies in return, a doctor who shares your diagnosis with his FPS lobby because he’s been ranking on the job, God (?), and Winston Peters (?) – ‘Snart’ dives into the difficulties that come with NPD, human connection, defining ‘humanness’ and connecting in the first place. Snart seems stuck in the same place with all of these endeavours, refusing to take accountability, but something big changes her, nevertheless. A twist at the end had the audience gasping and cheering, calling for more even as Luka retired from stage.

Though a few parts felt like they stretched on a little long to me, the writing was snappish, and my face hurt from laughing too much by the end of the show. All around me people were gasping and whooping at the provocative, irreverent humour, and the truly surreal bits which had been tweaked to fit into the show’s setting (there is simply so much you will never see coming!). At the end, everyone peeled out to My Immortal being sung once more, because things that have been started must then be finished.

Snart will be showing at Basement Theatre until 7 Jun. If you like sausages, you should go watch it.