Written by Grace Chapple
Directed by Lachlan Houen.
Off the Ledge Theatre
Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre. February
19-28.
Reviewed by Alanna McLean
Never Closer is a tightly written play set in Ireland. At the beginning the Troubles are in full swing but the young Catholic characters are also concentrating on living life. Life moves on and they reunite but now one is partnered with an Englishman and tensions and violence arise. There’s an ending of sorts some years later that involves migration and return.
There’s strong playing all round, with Emily O’Mahoney setting the pace as the fierce Deirdre who stays in the family home while others move away. Breanna Kelly as Mary is properly forthright as the young woman who calls a spade a spade. Natasha Lyall has a lovely knowing dignity as the one who comes back with an English partner. This is the wonderfully out of his cultural depth Harry who is deftly caught by Pippin Carroll.
Joel Hrbek’s playing of the perceptive Jimmy is an insightful contrast to Conor (a disturbing portrayal by Nick Bisa), a young man who seems to have absorbed all of the devastating local history with an eye to continuing it.
Set and lighting have some good atmospheric moments and there’s a poetic transformation done by the cast late in the piece which makes one wonder why an earlier set dressing change is not done in the same way.
The ending feels oddly underdeveloped but there’s a power in the people and a great feeling for dialogue. There’s real strength in the interaction between the characters and the use of the history. And the playing is of a very high order. It was well worth a visit to the Courtyard to see this cast at work on what is a powerful recent piece of Australian writing.