The Theatre on Chester is celebrating its 70th birthday with three “Memory Plays” from their many past productions. How pertinent that they have chosen Michael Gow’s classic Away to begin the celebration – a play that director Carla Moore describes as a “unique for its unmatched scale”, utilising as it does “a five-act Shakespearean structure with literary nods to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and King Lear (and) mixing domestic grief with music, clowning, supernatural elements, a play within a play and a theatrical storm worthy of the Bard himself”.
Gow set Away at the end of 1967 when Australia – and the world – stood at a crossroads. The era that followed would be filled with social and political change: anti-war demonstrations, workers’ strikes, student protests. Things that would lead to changes in social structure, values, expectations.
Director Carla Moore sees the three families in Away at their own personal crossroads, facing change, and loss, and sacrifice. Things Moore makes gently clear in her tender, perceptive interpretation of this “emotionally resonant” play. Her production concentrates on the characters and how they face “unearned luck” and “make amends ere long.”
Martin Bell and Karen Pattinson are Roy, a school principal and his wife Coral. Both are dealing in different ways with the death of their conscript son. Bell’s Roy is resilient, hiding his grief while dealing with the everyday challenges of work and his wife’s remoteness.
Pattison’s Coral moves fragilely through life consumed by a grief that is overwhelming. She is present but unseeing, unaware, lost. Both show the alone-ness of despair and rejection and the damage it can do to a relationship.
Jim (Cam Ralph) and Gwen (Anna Desjardins) are strugglers who have made good despite poverty and hardship. Much of their success is due to Gwen’s dogged determination, which Jim, played with calm acceptance and understanding by Ralph, appreciates. Their daughter Meg doesn’t! She can’t stand Gwen’s nagging and complaining, nor Jim’s tolerance of it.
Desjardins’ Gwen is relentless, harping, finding fault, blaming, intolerant especially of those she considers lower in status. A character difficult to like – a performance easy to admire!
Meg is a typical mid-teen of the time, caught up in school life, her part in the school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the admiration of Tom who plays Puck. Tara Bishop finds Meg’s growing sense of independence and confidence … and her naivety and poise, especially in a difficult scene with Tom.
Harry (Ian Boland) and Vic (Tracey Okeby Lucan) are amiable English migrants, anxious to support their son Tom who has been diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Both Boland and Okeby Lucan find the easy, self-assurance of this gentle couple, their pride in their son and their determination to make life as normal as possible for him.
Lucas Dockrill takes Tom on a journey fuelled by the knowledge that life is short. It gives him the courage to bite back a Gwen’s disdain for his parents, to make a difficult suggestion to Meg – and to realise Coral’s need for compassion and understanding.
Kate Kelly doubles as Drama teacher Miss Latrobe and Leonie, a woman confronted by Coral as she tries to be more involved. Oscar Baird is the young honeymooner in whom Coral sees her lost son. Baird, with Martin Bell, Ian Boland and Kate Kelly also play a group of very robust campers. Ava Calhoun and Elle Holland are Shakespearean fairies, resort guests and school students.
Moore’s set is simple, symbolic. It is the action that is important. There is a real sense of commitment and passion in this production. The characterisations are strong and expressive. The changes of pace and emotion are cleverly heightened by Mike Brew’s gentle lighting and Charlotte Wiltshire clever choice of music and sound effects.
Carla Moore has realised a “most rare vision” * in her production of this iconic Australian play, the first in Theatre on Chester’s 70th birthday program.
First published on Stage Whispers magazine
* Opening performance