Director: Cate Clelland Costume design: Fiona Leach
Set Design: Cate Clellan Lighting Design: Hamish McConchieSound Design: Tracey Rice Presented by Free-Rain Theatre Company
Courtyard Studio at Canberra Theatre Centre until 2nd November, 2014
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
This searing tragi-comedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning play by
Tracey Letts dissects the disintegration of a family following the death of the family
patriach, Beverley Weston.
Beverley Weston (David Bennett) is the first character we
meet in the opening scene. Once a famous poet and academic, he is now an alcoholic
and, we learn later, a philanderer. He lives in a sprawling house outside
Pawhuska, Oklahoma, with his wife, Violet (Karen Vickery), who is stricken with
mouth-cancer, and addicted to prescription drugs.
In the opening scene we find Beverley Weston in the process
of employing a young Cheyenne woman, Johnna, (Linda Chen) to work as a live-in
housekeeper and to care for him and Violet.
That’s the last we see of Beverley Weston, because in the very
next scene – which takes place a week later - we learn that Beverley has
disappeared, and some of his family are meeting at the house to support Violet
while the search goes on. Among them, Matty Fay (Elizabeth Bradley), Violet’s extraordinarily
insensitive, motor-mouthed sister, and Matty Fay’s ever-amiable husband,
Charlie (Michael Sparks). Violet’s
eldest daughter, the spiky,
potty-mouthed, Barbara (Andrea Close) arrives with her husband, Bill, (Jim
Adamik) and their fourteen year-old daughter, Jean ( Amy Campbell), and the emotional
temperature begins to climb.
When the news arrives via the local Sheriff (Brian Kavanagh), that Beverley is dead, the rest of the
family turn up for the funeral, and the funeral dinner. Then the blood-letting
begins in earnest. For this family, which now includes Violet’s other two
daughters, Ivy, (Lainie Hart) and Karen (Rose Braybook) as well as Karen’s new
fiancé, Steve (Paul Jackson), and Matty Fay and Charlie’s son, Little Charles
(Ethan Thomas) are not backward in expressing themselves, and Tracey Letts’
incisive, compelling dialogue, gives them exactly the right ammunition with
which to verbally flagellate each other.
Both Karen Vickery as Violet, and Andrea Close as her eldest
daughter, Barbara, give performances of astonishing intensity. Perfectly
matched as adversaries, their scenes together are hypnotic as they relentlessly
chew at each other, knowing exactly how to inflict the maximum emotional pain.
Even though we see him only in the prologue, David Bennett’s
presence as Beverley Weston, permeates the entire play. All of the other characters are perfectly
cast, so that the ensemble scenes crackle with undercurrents and back stories,
all of which are revealed with surgeon- like precision as the play progresses.
Director, Cathy Clelland has found her forte with this type
of play, which in many ways recalls her memorable production of “Who’s Afraid
of Virginia Wolfe”. Her ant-farm inspired set, which allows the audience to see
the characters simultaneously going about their business in other areas of the
rambling house, works particularly well in providing interesting acting spaces.
As yet she hasn’t mastered the art of devising interesting
entrances and exits. Simply having the characters walk into position in
half-light, and then begin acting, is hardly magical. But she certainly knows
what to do with her actors once they are on stage.
Free Rain Theatre has much to be proud of with this
outstanding production which provides a splendid showcase for an ensemble of
Canberra’s finest actors.
This review appears on the Australian Arts Review website.
