Written by Nathan Maynard – Produced by Tasmania
Performs
Directed by Isaac Drandic – Designed by Richard
RobertsLighting designed by Rachel Burke – Sound composed and designed by Ben Grant
The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre – 13 – 15 September
2018
Performance on 13th September reviewed by
Bill Stephens
Nathan Maynard’s elegiac, slice-of-life love letter to
his family shines a spotlight on an aboriginal community which for generations
has eked out a living harvesting baby mutton birds during the annual mutton
birding season on Tasmania’s remote Big Dog Island. The journey to the mutton bird rookeries is
a tradition Tasmanian aborigines have undertaken for hundreds of years. Maynard’s
play focusses on the Duncan family, led by patriarch Ben (Maitland Schnaars)
and his wife, Stella (Della Rae Morrison), who are hosting a reunion for the
birding season.
 |
| The Duncan Family Della Rae Morrison (Stella) - Maitland Schnaars (Ben) - James Slee (front-Clay) Mathew Cooper (Ritchie) - Lisa Mazza (Marlene) - Nazaree Dickerson (Lou) |
Helping out are their cocky son Ritchie (Mathew
Cooper), their daughter Lou (Nazaree Dickerson) and her teenage son, Clay
(James Slee) who lives in Melbourne and is having his first experience
harvesting mutton birds. Clay is keen to succeed at mutton birding but is
distracted by the fact that his no-good white father has not turned up as
promised.
Not a lot happens on Big Dog Island, and so the
Duncans spend their time bickering over early morning breakfasts, and sharing
secrets during late night parties on the beach or during sweaty days in the
plucking sheds. There is little drama in their interaction, not the least
because of the scatter-gun delivery of some of the cast, which made it
difficult to catch many of the lines.
 |
| Trevor Jamieson (Neil) - Lisa Mazza (Marlene) |
The funniest
and most compelling moments are generated by the exuberant performances of Lisa Mazza as Stella’s potty-mouthed sister
Marlene, and Trevor Jamieson as her impish, randy no-hoper boyfriend, Neil, and the repercussions of Marlene's decision, after some comical canoodling on the beach, to
end her long-term affair with Neil, which leads to the revelation from Lou, that
she’s lesbian.
Charismatic Jamieson also doubles as the ranger, but his
magnificent white beard is so distinctive that it’s impossible to accept that
the ranger is not Neil in his day job.
Apart from its depiction of family dynamics, the main
interest is the play is enactment of the rituals associated with mutton
birding. Much of the dialogue takes place as the young birds, represented by
white rags, are dragged from their nests, their necks broken, and then strung
on long sticks and carried off to the plucking sheds.
There are poetic moments in the references to the
mutton birds which migrate thousands of kilometres each year, only to return to
the same burrows to breed, and in the scene in which young Clay summons up the
courage to plunge his arm into a mutton bird burrow, and then deciding to
release the precious white mutton bird leader he discovers.
Richard Robert’s spare panoramic setting effectively
conjures up the remoteness of the island beaches, and the plucking sheds, but it’s
a pity that a better solution could not have been found for the all-important
kitchen scenes, which are cramped to one side of the stage.
With “The Season” Maynard has written a shrewd,
charming play memorable for the
uniqueness of its setting, its colourful characters who like the mutton birds
return each year to their special island, and for the insights it offers into
little-known activity of mutton-birding.
