Despite Thursday being the happy occassion of the preview of the Company of Dramatic Arts’(CODA) production of Ordinary Days, the weather was, frankly, fucking miserable.
It was pouring down, and as we made our way to the intimate stage of Studio One, nestled on the UNSW campus, Vertigo’s Social Media Director Kimia and I worried over whether this was subtle foreshadowing, or pathetic fallacy, or something. We feared tears were on the playbill.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) we were right. It was.
You might know Ordinary Days from snippets of sounds on TikTok, like this one, or this one. The premise of the 90-minute show is deceptively simple; 21 back-to-back numbers. Four performers. One piano. No intermission.
Framed as vignettes surrounding an artist with big dreams and endless whimsy, a focused grad student struggling with her thesis, and a couple whose relationship is on the rocks as they figure out how to take big steps together, Ordinary Days is a one-act musing, with music and lyrics by Adam Gwon, on how the lives of strangers interconnect and overlap in a big, big city.
CODA’s iteration of the show was a joy to watch, with the tiny cast’s enormous levels of talent sending shockwaves through the whole of the Esme Timbery Creative Practice Lab. The heart of the show is carried by the whimsy and magnetism of Matt Dorahy’s Warren, with Danika Rojas’ intensity as Deb being a real standout—the pair were magical to watch together. The vocals of Cassidy Lobb as Claire genuinely made jaws drop, and with Liam Faulkner-Dimond as Jason alongside her, the heavier moments of the show landed extremely well, with the cast generating a deep and profound tenderness that keeps audiences hanging on every word.
The small studio lent itself to the show well, providing a level of intimacy that would be missed in a larger space. In the opening number, when Warren stands on the stairs of the seating bank and hands out flyers, or later, when these flyers are tossed into the air and fill the entire room, the proximity of these moments makes it feels like the audience has been let into a lovely little secret.
The show is bookended by the backlighting of parallel columns on either side of the simple stage and its painted New York City vista. As a representation of the silhouette of the Twin Towers, this set choice is so striking. The absence follows in memory, inescapable, unavoidable—it is impossible to think of life in New York without thinking of the grief that is carried in the city. The show is silhouetted by, but not about, this grief; at its core, Ordinary Days is about love, both for everything here that you have, and everything that is no longer, and what is grief but that?
As we waited for the doors to open, we spoke to the mother of Kris Sergi, who is both the director of the show, and the Company Artistic Director of CODA. “Ordinary Days is about the October of our lives”, she explained. It’s about moving forward, even when it feels difficult, and moving with love.
A couple of those flyers that I mentioned earlier made their way to our perch in the audience in their multicoloured flurry. My favourite one, printed on bright blue paper with a very cute bread illustration, reads ‘burnt toast is still toast.’ No matter how burnt and nasty it gets, it’s always going to be toast, and that’s what counts.
You can buy tickets for CODA’s production of Ordinary Days here! The show runs at Studio One in Kensington until May 24, 2025. Catch it before it’s too late!
They also have an incredible season lineup with lots of awesome shows happening in the coming months, so stay tuned ;)