This sparseness created an intense intimacy, as she appeared in hospital scrubs to tell the story of her palliative care nurse Flick with surprising humour and a kind of traumatic compassion. Flick describes her job, and how she and the rest of the staff deal, day to day, with the many difficulties involved in, to put it bluntly, death.
This might sound overly dark and macabre, and yet there’s so much here that’s warmly funny, even as Flick becomes involved and intrigued with the plight of patient Mark, who has a PhD in (of all things) Pyrotechnics (as in fireworks, she explains). When she agrees, somewhat unethically, to do a favour for him, lines are crossed and secrets come to the fore, as Flick finds comfort for the first time in ages.
Nunn never stops or stumbles, as she switches from character to character (Flick’s nosy Mum, and later her wild bestie Stacy), and the tone deftly shifts from melancholy, to comedy, to terrible pain, and beyond.
Fireworks indeed!
Flick is on at Studio Theatre at Goodwood Theatre and Studios during Adelaide Fringe until Sunday, 23 February. Get tickets here.
