Monday, March 27, 2023

HOLDING THE MAN - Everyman Theatre

 

Lewis McDonald and Joel Horwood in "Holding the Man".

Written by Tommy Murphy – Directed by Jarrad West

Lighting design by Nathan Sciberras – Sound Design by Neville Pye

Costume design by Fiona Leach – Music composed by Alexander Unikowski

ACT Hub : 23rd March to 1st April 2023.

Opening night performance reviewed by Bill Stephens.

It has taken quite a long time for a production of Queanbeyan playwright Tommy Murphy’s break-out play “Holding the Man” to be given a Canberra production.  However, the timing could hardly have been better given the attention on gay relationships as a result of the recent World Pride celebrations in Sydney, and the current streaming by the ABC of a four-part series, “In Our Blood”, which tells a very similar story.

Tommy Murphy’s adaptation of NIDA Graduate, Timothy Conigrave’s memoir detailing his 15 year love affair with footballer, John Caleo, which ended when Caleo died of AIDS, premiered at the Griffin Theatre in Sydney in 2006.  The play became the highest-grossing production in Griffin Theatre's 30-year history, and has since won multiple awards and been produced successfully around Australia and overseas.

In Jarrad West’s Brechtian production for Everyman Theatre, Joel Horwood gives a brilliantly sustained performance as Timothy Conigrave;  young, flighty and impetuous at high school; not understanding his attraction for the handsome young athlete, but determined to advance it.  Then later, more mature and thoughtful about their relationship while keen to explore opportunities for other relationships in pursuit of his career in theatre. .

Equally impressive,  Lewis McDonald matches Horwood  with his insightful  portrayal of  John Caleo, firstly, a reserved young  athlete equally interested in pursuing their relationship. Then as the play progresses,  as a  trainee chiropractor planning on opening  a practice, and unwilling to face the possibility of his career being  jeopardised  by having his sexuality exposed.

How the pair negotiate their relationship among family, friends and the vicissitudes of life forms the grist of the play, which reaches its climax with the inevitable death of John Caleo.

Lewis McDonald (obscured) - Joel Horwood - Tracy Noble - Amy Kowalczuk
in "Holding the Man".


Joe Dinn, Amy Kowalzcuk, Grayson Woodham and Tracy Noble provide admirable support creating the veritable army of family, friends and associates who pass through the lives of Conigrave and Caleo, particularly for their primary characters. However, one can only wonder if the play would have been more affecting had they dug a little deeper and  avoided the temptation to chase cheap laughs by creating caricatures more appropriate to satirical revue  rather than relatable characters, particularly in the early parts of the play.

Similarly, given that attitudes towards homosexuality have changed considerably since Murphy wrote this play, his dialogue remains as powerful, uncompromising and confronting as when it was written.  One wonders, therefore, at the necessity for the inclusion of unnecessarily explicit business which seemed to detract from the delicacy of the play. The over-long group masturbation scene immediately comes to mind.

Never-the-less, although this production is not as finessed as we have come to expect from Everyman Theatre, with several scenes played on the floor which were invisible to much of the audience, it is still an imaginative attempt to do justice to an important play which, to an audience still battling with a current pandemic, remains a potent reminder of a previous horror which cut a deadly swathe through some of the country’s most creative individuals.


      Hero image: Eva Schroder - Group image: Janelle McMenamin and Michael Moore


   This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au