The State Theatre Company of South Australia is presenting the premiere of Things I Know to be True, a new play by South Australian writer, Andrew Bovell. Bovell has already given us such marvellous works as Speaking in Tongues, which later became the film, Lantana, and the exceptional work, When the Rain Stops Falling. Everybody in the audience had great expectations of his latest work and nobody was disappointed. This is a solid gold script and it has been developed into a play that had the foyer abuzz during the interval and again after the performance.
This is not a solo effort, though as State Theatre has co-produced this work with the English company, Frantic Assembly, known for their very physical performances, with their director, Scott Graham, co-directing with Geordie Brookman, co-CEO and Artistic Director of State Theatre. It will be re-produced later in 2016 in London and other centres in the UK.
The addition of physical layers to the text manifests in a number of ways from one character being lifted and carried by the others in the cast, to a character's clothes being changed as they speak, to furniture sliding or being thrown around the stage to be caught and placed just in time for it to be used. It is most noticeable when it is combined with the set changes. The set is mostly in the garden, where Bob likes to spend his time growing roses. Over the course of the play raised beds are added, wheelbarrows of earth are emptied into them and small plants added, then a shed is built, and the roses grow to full bloom.
The set and lighting design is by Geoff Cobham, a regular with the company, and is well up to his usual standard of inventiveness. On this occasion it is enhanced by the art of Thom Buchanan, which lives and breathes with the subtle lighting changes. He has found himself a place in the performing arts working not only with this company, but also with groups such as the Zephyr String Quartet. I am proud to say that I also own one of his paintings.
As if designing the complex costuming for State Opera's Cloudstreet this month wasn't enough work, Ailsa Paterson also designed the costumes for this production. She is much in demand and always delivers. The final element is Andrew Howard's sound design, which includes a considerable amount of music by exciting Berlin-based composer Nils Frahm.
Bob and Fran Price, from Hallett Cove, have four children and, as the play begins, we meet nineteen year old Rosie, the youngest of them of them, spending her gap year in Europe but she now going to cut her stay short and return home, having been badly upset by a whirlwind romance that went horribly wrong. Rosie has an older sister, Pip, and two brothers, Mark, and the high flying investor, Ben. Together they make up about the most dysfunctional family you are likely to meet. Things that Rosie knew to be true, or thought she did, begin to unravel.
Tilda Cobham-Hervey, who plays Rosie, told Bovell of a time in London when a relationship had ended and, sitting in tears on a railway platform, she had made a list of all of the things that she knew to be true as a means of settling herself. That became the basis for Rosie's opening story, and the title of this play. With such a strong connection there is no surprise in the intense emotional power behind her performance in this opening scene. She continues impress throughout the production in the role of the mediator, trying to reconcile the differences between members of the family and keep them all together.
Bob is played by one of Adelaide's favourite actors, Paul Blackwell, whose skills in comedy are legen, and who is also remarkably fine in dramatic roles, and we have seen a few very moving performances in the last few years. This is yet another one of them as he portrays a man who thought he had a nice easy life in early retirement in which he could potter about in his garden with his wife and family around him, and grandchildren making regular visits. Blackwell shows Bob's inability to cope with one after another thing destroying that dream as he finds himself helpless to hold everything together and maintain the status quo.
Eugenia Fragos plays his wife, Fran, and she is also no stranger to Adelaide audiences. She shows Fran's coping mechanism as a combination of fury, orders, and demands. No longer responding to those outdated tactics, her children rebel and fight back, with Fragos demonstrating Fran's frustration and inability to understand why so much is changing so quickly.
Pip is played by Georgia Adamson, in a powerful performance as a strong, determined woman who is not afraid to stand up to Fran and refusing to accept that she should live her life as her parents have done. Pip is married but is announcing that she is going overseas for some time to pursue her career, leaving, the family behind. To Bob and Fran, this is not the way that a wife should behave. Adamson portrays Pip as very much the modern woman, considering her own needs first.
Nathan O'Keefe who, like Blackwell, is renowned for his comedic abilities, can also turn in some very powerful dramatic roles as he show here as Ben. Ben lives a lavish lifestyle, keeping up with the Joneses or, more accurately, trying to keep up with others in his business circle. O'Keefe exhibits all of the brashness and confidence of the successful businessman and, when his whole world collapses, he shows us the enormous impact that it has on Ben.
Tim Walter plays the other son, Mark, whose marriage has also failed. When the reason his wife has left him is revealed, the family is even more devastated than by Ben's demise. Walter gives a superb performance as he tries to explain to his parents things that hey had never even though about. It is a moving and emotion charged encounter.
There is still one more blow to come, from which there is no going back. That, you will discover in the theatre. Andrew Bovell has provided another of his powerful and captivating scripts, and Geordie Brookman and Scott Graham have assembled and worked with a terrific cast to bring it to the stage. This is the second premiere of a totally Australian production within a week, and deserves to have the same sell-out audiences as State Opera's Cloudstreet. Make sure that you catch it before it heads interstate.
Here is a very quick peek behind the scenes in the rehearsal room
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