By Debra Oswald; Director Damien Ryan, Ensemble Theatre Kirribilli; 28 July – 2 September.
Reviewed : August 4, 2023
It’s nice to see Debra Oswald’s Mr Bailey back on a main stage – and who better to play the bad-tempered, drunken old artist than John Gaden! It’s a great role taking the character from cranky drunk to dapper recovered alcoholic to remorseful octogenarian and Gaden makes these transitions remarkably – as one would expect – but he does more than that!
He bases them in a sustained energy that inhabits the character, an energy that radiates in his eyes, in the way he watches, in distinctive movements and shaky gestures, in raised eyebrows or a sudden tilt of the head. This Leo Bailey is real. He knows what he’s done, the hurt he’s caused. He’s lived with his conscience for years, dulling it with drink and anger and bitter self-righteousness – alone in a decaying house built into a cliff.
That is until his daughter Margot (Rachel Gordon) who manages his dwindling estate, employs ex-prisoner Therese (Claudia Ware) as his ‘minder”.
Margot is hard. She’s learnt to be over years of hurt and rejection by Leo. As have all Leo’s children, his many wives and his friends. Though he is still regarded as one of the country’s greatest artists, he has been ostracised, and Margot has borne the brunt of his venom and spiteful accusations. Gordon plays that hardness well. She is remote, contained – the hurt and bitterness clear in her rigidity, her cold, controlled reactions to Leo’s accusations.
Therese, conversely, is sympathetic, disturbed by Margot’s lack of compassion. But then, Therese needs this job. She’s made a pact with herself to ‘go straight’ and this is her chance to prove herself. Ware shows all of that – as well as the empathy Margot has forsworn. She makes Therese spirited, determined, understanding … but always a little on edge, a little wary. There’s strength in her resolve – and energy in her youthful sense of fun.
She forges a bond with Leo based on mutual need. But she doesn’t take any nonsense! She makes that clear from the start and Leo is startled into accepting it, reluctantly at first, but Ware’s gritty resolve and no-nonsense attitude make her Therese hard to resist.
However, when handy man Karl (Albert Mwangi) arrives, sent by Margot to remove a mural to be sold to augment Leo’s finances, Leo manages to escape. Therese is distraught, and, caught in the middle of the ensuing mayhem, Karl gets involved. Mwangi plays this part with calm compassion and understanding. He stands back a little, offers advice warily but caringly – establishing a warm relationship with Leo – and a tentative rapport with Therese.
Between them they do a “deal” with Leo. If he gets off the booze and gets cleaned up, Therese will take him on outings. That’s when we see the dapper George! Charming, sociable and, eventually, remorseful. It’s also when we see a different depth of understanding in Therese. A realisation of Leo’s talent, an appreciation of Margot’s attitude.
Debra Oswald weaves their stories together in a plot that she says was fuelled by her “long-standing obsessions – shame, forgiveness, disarming acts of tenderness, the way parents can fail their children and how people might nurture each other in surrogate parent/child relationships.” That she covered all of that in this play is a credit to her ability to create characters and situations which are identifiable across time and generations.
Damien Ryan brings his similarly empathetic touch to the direction, giving the actors space and time to reach into the different layers of the characters and use them to develop the different ways they reach toward – or away from – each other.
I directed this play for a community theatre company in 2008 – and it has lost none of its relevance, or poignancy, or pathos all these years later.