Share
Clip description
Mr Jonathon (Ben Miller) is feeling intense pressure after the loss of his only boy dancer, Jason. He promotes Tenille (Shayni Notelovitz) to the lead role, but he realises he needs more razzle-dazzle, a few show stoppers, in his grand final piece – even though it’s about the oppression of women in Afghanistan. Tenille, under her own intense pressure from her mother (Kerry Armstrong), shows the strain.
Curator’s notes
The film is clever to give us just a glimpse of what’s in store at the grand final, preserving the element of surprise. Ben Miller’s performance is very well developed. He’s a complete character, despite the needs of the satire. He’s clearly haunted by doubts about his own abilities, and his deeply repressed emotions suggest a lifetime of compromise and disappointment – all of which makes us hope that he will take his troupe to the top this time (even if he doesn’t like competitions). The scene has a good sense of the building excitement for the girls, and of how committed they all are to doing well.
