June 12 - 27 2026
Reviewed by Frank McKone
June 12
Creatives
Creatives
Director: Tony Knight
Asst Director & Costume: Ylaria Rogers
Design: Michael Sparks
Artworks: Leigh Penton & Kerry Wode/Lillian Vickery & John Vickery
Light & Stage Management: Disa Swifte
Sound: Neville Pye; Composition: Paris Scharkie
Properties & Medical Consultant: Yanina Clifton
Intimacy Consultant: Jill Young
Cast
Hester – Jenna Roberts; Mrs Elton – Kate Blackhurst
Philip – Jack Shanahan; Ann – Meaghan Stewart
Sir William Collyer – Michael Sparks; Freddie Page – Sol Mason
Jackie Jackson – Blue Hyslop
Terence Rattigan’s 1950s’ play is about what it means to love someone, what it means to be loved by someone, and what it means when love fades, and life seems to no longer have any purpose.
These are the experiences of the central character: a woman, Hester, a demanding role played with sensitivity and fine detail by Jenna Roberts, through all the vicissitudes from self-loathing to hope.
As the two men in her life, the staid successful Judge Sir William Collyer and the one-time military test pilot, adventurous Freddie Page – Michael Sparks and Sol Mason respectively – match Roberts’ acting skill, providing strength and balance in the drama’s through-line to Hester’s achievement of true independence.
And, all the other characters in her milieu – other tenants in the block of flats where Hester lives, the unit cleaning-woman, a down-graded medic, and Freddie’s air force friend – establish their status and position as they relate to her, influencing how she progresses from near suicide to taking up her artistic work in a positive frame of mind.
This Chaika production of The Deep Blue Sea is very successful first because of the quality of the directing. Tony Knight has clearly understood the need for the style appropriate for the period and situation that Rattigan has written into the script – almost as if it were a Noel Coward witty comedy as the play begins, which then mutates into serious reality.
In addition, playing at The ACT Hub, with the audience grouped at each end, and the sitting room setting across the space between them, allows us to feel as if we are almost in the room with the characters – reminding me of that other famous intimate theatre, Ensemble Theatre in Sydney.
The careful mimimal use of external sound – the quiet piano – and lighting underdone – but just right – reinforced the sense of quality theatre on the principle of less is more.
Finally, the choice of a play about love and marriage difficulties from a time before today’s social media disaster is an important contribution to recognising the value of real-time person to person life – in a time now when youth suicide is on the increase.
A production not to be missed.
At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_Blue_Sea_(play), for further thinking about the significance of Rattigan’s theme, his personal history suggests he intended the implications of Hester’s story should apply to any love experience, not only male-female. The important issue, it seems to me, is that we all should do our bit to support others through their natural emotional turmoils when their hopes are unfulfilled. That’s another kind of love.
