Safety Nets | Adelaide Fringe 2022 review

Sarah Butler and Jillian O’Dowd present a highly theatrical, thoughtful expression of what it means to be homeless.

Safety Nets.

Safety Nets

Theatre and Physical Theatre

Rating: *****

Studio at Bakehouse Theatre

Until March 12

Haunting, stirring and unmissable, this powerful new production will leave you truly comprehending there is no place like home.

Creators and performers Sarah Butler and Jillian O’Dowd present a highly theatrical and thoughtful expression of what it means to be homeless.

Both are billed as Ruby Tuesday, a woman in her 50s living in a derelict theatre squat in Sydney.

Ruby’s mum was Mick Jagger’s muse and inspiration for the Stones’ song – or maybe she was really an addled drug addict trapped in a cycle of poverty and abuse.

Butler is reminiscent of King Lear upon the heath, revealing Ruby’s inner turmoil and mounting madness raging at a world of injustice.

O’Dowd is her lyrical, musical Fool, chiding and echoing her thoughts as much as a taunt as support.

Both are brilliant.

As Jagger sings: “Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind – Ain’t life unkind?”

This play will make you laugh and cry but the creators urge us to act to “take what you need – and give what you can”. All donations go to the Hutt Street Centre.