Review: THE GRADUATE BY TERRY JOHNSON at The Dolphin Theatre, Onehunga

 

                                                   Where does love go?

 

Set in 1967, THE GRADUATE by Terry Johnson, is definitely a black comedy. This genre is a style of storytelling that tackles serious realities but with touches of well-placed absurdist and ironic humour. In this case, the realities include the existentialist crisis, marriages teetering on the brink of dysfunctional, and parents who don’t want their children to grow up unless they perform to the social norms, the limited freedom for women, and the issues of the anxious and adrift rich young who just doesn’t know what to do.  To keep the levity within the genre, you can expect touches of absurdist humour, irony, exaggerated characterisation, symbolism and somewhat surreal settings to highlight the hypocrisy within the social environment.

Annie Whittaker  focuses her director's vision on the struggles for women which were very real prior to the woman's liberation movement.  Our lives were far more constrained by society’s expectations. “The difference between the two married women in this play is profound - one embraces her home maker life” but struggles when her graduate son wants to grow up and move on, “and the other is slowly being eaten alive by her boring homemaker life.” The flirtatious and charismatic, sexual Mrs Robinson (Trudy Price) “knows how to enjoy herself”. She solves her boredom and unhappiness with sexual dalliances as her workaholic husband (Gavin Leary) goes to work (he’s fascinated by the new world of plastics) only to comes home, take a sleeping tablet and be out for the count. This vision is clearly captured. 

Even the opening moments immediately clarify the social picture for the audience. The wealthy dominating Braddock parents (Jake La Jeunesse) (Victoria Poole) are throwing a party for their graduate son, Benjamin (Nicholas Yeats). Polished performances from these two. Line delivery is slick and quick enough to emulate real life. The Braddocks want to show Benjamin off to their friends downstairs and he’s dressed (somewhat absurdly) in the wet suit they have bought him as a graduation gift. The scuba suit symbolises his internal psychological state, and a life he does not want, drowning in expectations of an adulthood for which he is ill-prepared.  The expensive gear is a status symbol – one to be bragged about. He’s absolutely adamant he’s not going downstairs. Nicholas Yeats immediately captures Benjamin, the puppet, whose parents want him to perform as they expect.

No surprise that he has an existentialist crisis. Out of boredom, rebellion, and a desire to feel something, he gets swept up in a scandalous affair with Mrs Robinson, the wife of his father's business partner. “This is rather a strange conversation, Mrs Robinson.”  It is Benjamin’s story that drives the narrative. Nicholas Yeats is to be congratulated for the physical, emotional and vocal energy and psychological depth he sustains throughout the play – one in which he virtually never leaves the stage. The powerful, darkly comedic exploration of youthful disillusionment and society conformity is superbly characterised.  

Eventually, the arc of the story shifts when Benjamin falls for Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine.  (Rose Herda) Of note is Tia Svoboda, who convincingly captures a number of small roles in the play.  The stage comes to life when she enters as the shimmering stripper at Benjamin and Elaine’s first date.  

Congratulations to Rose Herda for her convincing portrayal of the “honest, sincere, sweet, uncomplicated” Elaine whose optimistic warmth is infectious. “The world is full of wonderful things. Life is precious. I love my life.” . The fast paced and vocally varied dialogues between these two are entirely engaging. Ben’s relentless pursuit of Elaine becomes a way to rebel against his elders and forge a path of his own – and despite the tumultuous, soap-opera reality of Benjamin sleeping with her mother, Elaine ultimately finds Benjamin to be the only person willing to help her break out of the stifling world in which she lives, Elaine is liberated by defying her parents and choosing the messy reality of life with Benjamin over the hollow conformity of her wedding

As expected in a black comedy, which provides a way to process trauma and discomfort, THE GRADUATE tackles serious realities, with laughter while provoking deeper thought. 

 

Get along to see it at THE DOLPHIN THEATRE, ONEHUNGA . On 19 June – 4 July.

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