I saw this play last night at the Lieder Theatre and liked it a lot. It's a strong and provocative piece of theatre and it was very well performed.
Before I go to far into this blog entry, (and I'm trying to keep them shorter) I'll just remake this point I've made before... the blog is about encountering plays, figuring out my impressions about them and whether they are in some way or another a "great play." It's all very subjective and it's not designed to be specifically a critique of the performance(s) I've seen. And I've said all of that before... just reiterating because this is a local play and if there ARE any readers of this blog, and if they haven't read the previous ones, they may be expecting something focused on this production.
Having said that, I do want to mention some particular kudos relating to this production. I thought the staging and set design was brilliant. The stacked boxes denoting all of the correspondence Lindy has received, that also served as a backdrop to the many images of letters, the photos and the odd video footage... master stroke.
This production was well acted, and I think for the lead actress Erin Williams as Lindy this may have been her best performance/ Or best I've seen anyway (again, in my humble opinion).
And I think also it was a very good choice for inclusion in the Lieder's shows for this season.
Focusing on the play. For people of a certain age... people who lived through the incident, the trials, the court cases and the aftermath... I feel this play holds a special resonance. For these people (and I'm one), it hits differently as the kids would say. But I think it is still immensely powerful for a generation for whom this is a historic artefact. To see an accurate and honest portrayal of the very divisive, often confusing and frequently cruel topic that gripped the nation does a lot more than reading a Wikipedia account or textbook.
For my money, I think the story was particularly fair. Not everyone came down heavily against Lindy Chamberlain. Not everyone had her convicted before she went before the courts. But a lt did, and even in the midst of many taking her side, the anger and blame levels were switched up to 11, and the willingness to believe ridiculous unsourced rumour and inuendo was spot on.
The story of Lindy Chamberlain is definitely one that should be studied at schools and I can't imagine a more powerful way of doing that than this play. If there are critics, they may suggest that amping up the emotional aspects of the story telling might blur the facts but I believe dialing down the emotions fails to tell the story, certainly as i remember and experienced it.
The actors in the performance I saw ALL delivered a high level of passion and commitment to their verbatim letters, communications and stories, and without that, there would be a massive disconnect between the subject matter and the evidence of the performances.
Verbatim theatre, using actual documents and quotations, has the opportunity to provide a more powerful walk through history . Like a documentary, it does open up the possibility for the story teller to attach a personal bias or slant but from my perspective, playwright Alana Valentine got the balance right... no mean feat when dealing with such a passionate and divisive topic.
I think the play started exactly how it should and ended exactly where it should. I DO think (and this is a comment about the script, not the performance I saw) that the second act loses some of the momentum and direction... just a few things that didn't seem to advance the story from my perspective... but I'm also aware that Alana Valentine is a very well established, hugely respected writer who has tackled verbatim theatre successfully before and to much acclaim with this piece, and that my thoughts are probably nit-picking minor observations.
So is it a great play? Definitely. Certainly in an Australian context and possibly more broadly. I believe it needs to be part of school curriculum and sadly, every time another emotive and divisive topic emerges in the country, it will only become more relevant.
One last comment regarding the production... while "The Secret River" and "Through the Embers" remain my favourite shows that I've seen at the Lieder, this is still a powerful, important and very cleverly staged play. Taking on controversy and tapping into something real is to be applauded, and so too are the acting performances of the entire cast. I found it very moving and I would recommend it highly to anyone able to attend.
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