| The Spook | Frankston Arts Centre & Malthouse Theatre |
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Inspired by a true story from country Victoria, Melbourne playwright Melissa Reeves (Who’s Afraid of the Working Class) marries whimsical comedy and a bittersweet personal odyssey, with Australian political obsessions of the 1960s in The Spook – an astute and humorous look at reds under the beds, formica and the limits of doing one’s bit for their country.
Martin Porter is a secret agent. Recruited by ASIO at a local footy match, he is thrust into a life of deception, bugged conversations, misplaced loyalty, romance, dark glasses, betrayal and ideas of grandeur. National heroism is imminent for this nineteen year-old fitter and turner, as he exits a life of the mundane and infiltrates the bowels of a national threat - the South Bendigo Communist Party.
It’s 1965, in the garage of a local member in Bendigo, which is a long way from the streets of Khrushchev's Russia, or the blooming of one thousand flowers in China. The formal assemblies should be addressing the great issues facing the revolution, yet here they are, simply grappling with the administrative minutiae of declining sales of The Tribune and dwindling memberships as a result of the local Maoist slide shows.
As Martin obsessively attends his evening class in Marxist theory, and Party members Eli and George Tassekis welcome him into their family like a second son, life in Bendigo becomes fraught with danger - and our Spy is about to get his new friends into a whole lot of trouble!
Reeves script displays an astute understanding of how politics works at a micro-level in Australia, interspersed with a bittersweet personal odyssey with a Twenty-First Century bite. Although parochial in its setting it reflects on much larger themes in which basic human needs to be accepted struggle against political and institutional barriers. Although the play is about Australia in the '60s, Reeves says there are many parallels to the fridge-magnet world of the war on terrorism.:
"When I was researching it, I was amazed at how much license is given to governments and security institutions that are controlled by governments. I do think we have to be very careful about that. In some ways it's happening again. We have this enemy among us. It's getting quite similar to the way communism was perceived back then. The message is, I suppose, that de-humanising people can lead to inhumane acts."
Director Tom Healey (The Shape of Things) leads an ensemble of our finest character actors including Kevin Harrington (Sea Change), Denis Moore (The John Wayne Principle) and Luke Ryan (the UFO show).
WINNER - Three AWGIE’s (Australian Writer’s Guild Awards), including the GOLD AWGIE for Best New Work, 2005
WINNER - The Louis Esson Prize for Drama 2005
“This is a brilliant script, subversive, comic, suspenseful, sad and a
wonderful allegory for the paranoia of our times. It’s also a great
history lesson and it resonates strongly with contemporary life in
Australia. It manages to combine humour and darkness in just the right
measure.” The Louis Esson Prize for Drama, 2005 Judge’s Report
Frankston Arts Centre Present A Malthouse Theatre Production
The Spook
By Melissa Reeves
Direction Tom Healey
With Kevin Harrington, Odette Joannies, Denis Moore, Tony Nikolopoulos,
Genevieve Picot, Luke Ryan and Anne-Louise Sarks
Set and Costume Design Anna Borghesi
Lighting Design Richard Dinnen
Composition and Sound Design David Franzke
Venue: Frankston Arts Centre, Cnr Davey & Young Streets, Frankston, VIC
Season: Thursday 14 August – Saturday 16 August
Times: Thursday, Friday & Saturday at 8pm. Friday matinee at 1pm.
Tickets: $27 - $47 + booking fee
Bookings: www.artscentre.frankston.vic.gov.au or call 03 9784 1060
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