Thinking it over at the health farm

Issue 

Trim, Taut and Terrific
Written by Nick Hughes and Ian Farr
Junction Theatre, Thebarton (Adelaide), until June 10
Reviewed by Sophia Villis and Anthony Thirlwall

Trim, Taut and Terrific is exactly that. It's musical theatre that neatly raises issues concerning the socially aware, the socially aspiring, the socially ostracised and the just plain "social".

This highly entertaining performance of song, music and dance is set at Healthy Haven, a natural health farm in the Adelaide Hills. The play investigates a range of complex issues, particularly that of environmentally sustainable development.

Writer Nick Hughes explained to Green Left Weekly that the main idea behind the play was to trigger people into thinking about the issues. This is done in a humorous, sometimes direct way.

The play begins by looking at the modern obsession with body image.

In our profit-driven society, stuffed with advertising, our physical appearance is something that we are never content with. For many of us — those of us who are the "wrong" shape or size — the harder you work for "that look", the harder you have to work to maintain that appearance for fear of losing it. We have become victims of, and alienated from, our own bodies.

The play says much the same about our relationship with our natural environment. Our earth and forests are being fouled, flogged and flattened.

How we are going to change this remains largely unanswered. However, the play offers insights into some of the dramas, discoveries and conflicts that arise as we struggle for it.

Here is an opportunity for a good night at the theatre at a price you can afford. Don't miss it.

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