An adaption for the stage by Andrew Bovell
Directed by Neil Armfield
Sydney
Theatre Company
The
Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre 14th to 17th February 2013
 |
| Anita Hegh,Miranda Tapsell,Ethel-Ann Gundy, Ursula Yovich Photo: Heidrun Lohr |
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens.
Perhaps it
had something to do with the fact that
this production was presented in Canberra during the very week that a bill to
recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first inhabitants of
Australia received bi-partisan support in the Australian Parliament. Perhaps a
great many Canberrans have read Kate Grenville’s
novel, and were eager to see how it
translated into the stage version. Perhaps Canberra Theatre subscribers are
very canny with their choices and recognised that a Sydney Theatre Company
production directed by Neil Armfield was bound to be interesting.
Whatever the
reason, this short season by the Sydney Theatre Company of Andrew Bovell’s
moving adaptation of the Kate Grenville novel “The Secret River” sold out
it’s Canberra Theatre season well before it opened, so that many who
were a bit slow off the mark securing tickets missed the opportunity to see a production that will
be remembered as one of the major theatrical events of the Canberra Centenary
Year.
“The Secret
River” is epic theatre, masterful and memorable, offering real theatrical
magic, in the hands of a director who knows how to make a cast of 19 actors
seem like hundreds, to tell a sweeping, heart-breaking story about families,
both European and indigenous, trying to live fulfilling and worthwhile lives.
You don’t
need to have read Kate Grenville’s novel to enjoy this stage play, although your
experience may be deepened if you have…..but perhaps not. Either way, its
gripping theatre, which leaves you informed, satisfied and unsettled.
Nathaniel
Dean as the convict-farmer-breadwinner and Anita Hegh as his loyal, loving and
ultimately defeated wife, both provide warm compelling portraits of parents
trying to build a life for their family in a forbidding, unhelpful environment.
They are surrounded by a disparate group of acquaintances, all of whom are
already beaten by their circumstances. Jeremy Sims, unrecognisable as the monstrous
Smasher Sullivan, with his team of snarling, baying dogs; Bruce Spence as the
pathetic, educated Loveday; Daniel Henshall as the giggling misfit, Dan Oldfield;
Judith McGrath as the sun-withered Mrs Herring; Colin Moody, towering and menacing
as Thomas Blackwood; Mathew Sunderland in several characterisations; all create
startlingly recognisable inhabitants of a cruel world which has robbed them of
dignity and ambition.
No less impressive
are the indigenous performers, who spoke all their lines in the Darkinjung
dialect of the Hawkesbury region, which they had to learn for their roles, thus
allowing the audience to participate in the frustration of the language barrier
among the characters. Roy Gordon played the tribal elder Yalamundi; Trevor
Jamieson and Rhimi Johnson Page were the warriors, Ngalamalum and Wangarra; and Miranda
Tapsell and Ethel-Anne Gundy their womenfolk, Gillyagan and Buryia; each character so vivid and
memorable that their ultimate fate was even more appalling.
As the
narrator, Dhirrumbim, Ursula Yovich dominated the production, telling the story
in beautifully modulated tones, moving in and out of the action, all the
while providing the audience with insights into the thoughts and motivations of
the characters.
The cast
also includes five children whose unselfconscious interaction despite the
barrier of language was a potent illustration of the futility of adult ego and
ritual.
Stephen
Curtis’ towering, atmospheric, draped
setting, complimented by the subtle lighting and sound design by Mark Howett
and Steve Francis, provides a sense of the towering bushland which surrounds the
action that moves so fluidly from scene to scene. Tess Schofield’s often
ambiguous, sometimes surprising, costumes reflect the hardship of this environment.
Her use of white face makeup on the European characters ingeniously suggesting
how these characters may have appeared to the local indigenous Hawkesbury
inhabitants. .
Embracing
the impressionistic set and lighting, Neil Armfield has drawn remarkable
performances from his cast, interpolating the action with stunning directorial
flourishes to compliment the performances. His striking staging of the climatic massacre, his use of actors
as snarling dogs, white powder tossed by the actors to suggest gun shots, his use of smoke, fire and water throughout, and
extraordinary use of sound and music including nursery rhymes, folksongs and specially composed music, performed live members of the cast , and by the composer, Ian Grandage playing a variety of instruments to one side
of the stage, to heighten and clarify key moments, all combine in a brilliantly
theatrical telling of an important Australian story which ought to be seen by audiences
the length and breadth of the nation.
Indeed,
having witnessed the enthusiastic audience reaction to this director’s equally
brilliant staging of Tim Winton’s “Cloudstreet” when in was performed in the
Kennedy Centre in Washington in 2001, this production could expect a similar response from audiences worldwide.
