Independent Theatre. Odeon Theatre. 14 Nov 2014
This show is a treat, a piece of rivetingly good story-telling.
It is unbelievably tense and suspenseful, superbly acted and directed.
For two hours, it keeps its audience members in rapt attention.
Time becomes immaterial. Interval, coming at a cliffhanger moment, is unbearable. Then again, perhaps one needs a drink.
Certainly the characters do. Their sleep has been broken at 4am by unnerving drama.
It's all pretty breath-taking stuff and this is a credit to Rob Croser's seasoned direction and his astute choice of cast.
The play, lushly written by Alexi Kaye Campbell, is set in Yorkshire in 1937 in a grand but decaying country house occupied by Harold Pritchard, a ruthless mining magnate, impeccably played by Brant Eustice, and his wan wife Elizabeth, still racked by grief at the death of their 12-year-old son a decade ago. Alicia Zorkovic plays this stricken soul with a conviction which ends up searing into the heart. The couple is attended by just one servant, the very busy and capable Eileen who is embodied by a singularly assured and able year 11 student called Heather McNab - definitely a young actress to watch.
Action takes place in the plush old living room with its grand staircase and high crimson-curtained windows. Rob Croser and David Roach's set design is on an imposing scale which creates a dense sense of intimacy in the old Odeon Theatre. A fire crackles in a hidden hearth. A storm rages unstoppably outside, flares of lightning occasionally flashing through the window. The sound is beautifully balanced - prevailing while never dampening dialogue.
Out of the stormy night comes the mining operations man, John Bailey, to make a desperate pitch to save the jobs of 140 of Pritchard's mine workers. Angus Henderson delivers this brave working man with great feeling - the passionate and evocative words of the playwright pulling powerfully on the heartstrings.
Pritchard, in an oversize red smoking jacket but, annoyingly, minus the smoking which would have been very much part of his era, pours himself a drink, hears the man out, and is unmoved. New machines, progress and profit are his business plan. And he has houseguests, old friends from London.
Enter the Avery family. Michael Eustice as Geoffrey, ebullient and immediately likeable. Lyn Wilson, plays his sweet, outgoing wife and it is a performance of power and beauty. She's a beautifully nuanced actress.
Their son, Terence, is a languid and smooth-talking Oxford dropout, a would-be writer who has been exploring the Greece and the classics. He and the Pritchard's dead son, Edgar, were best friends in a childhood he is soon recalling as he visits the house for the first time since his playmate's tragic fate on Bracken Moor.
Will Cox is exquisitely effete as this decadent and opinionated young man and, as the plot evolves, his athleticism and dramatic skills deliver a performance of immense excitement. Complemented by the attendant focus and intensity of the other cast members, some unforgettably gripping scenes are achieved.
David Roach plays Dr Gibbons. Roach is an accomplished actor one loves to watch, but here his character is really just a plot device. He is crucial to the chemistry of the play, but the audience must suspend disbelief. Called to the house at 4am, this funny old doctor casually tells his patient he will be with him later, and lingers in the living room to engage in story-telling.
Sometimes making the hair stand on end or having one jumping in the seat, sometimes to shed a tear, this play makes for a thrilling ride. It delves into some truly terrifying territory. But it also is a well-written think-piece, a morality tale of sorts, which tackles issues of grief and guilt, of workers' solidarity and corporate greed, of war profiteering, of human compassion, of altruism, justice and redemption.
Leave Midsomer Murders and Poirot and catch this night of satisfying suspense in the real live theatre. You won't be sorry,
When: 14 to 22 Nov
Where: Odeon Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
