Sydney Reviews

Away by Michael Gow, that effusive piece of Australian Theatre, dissected by the Board of Studies and mounted and re-mounted across the land comes to the Zenith Theatre at Chatswood, by way of Phoenix Theatre Company.

As I expressed in my interview last week, Lyndelle Green is the director of the work and undertaker of a great task.

She directs a respectable production. I hinted that the production had in its prowess potential to be a good production and it has lived up to it. The actor fatigue I saw in the dress run has been replaced by crisper delivery and slightly more drawn characters.

The play opens at the conclusion of A Midsummer Nights Dream and thence presents us with three families as they head ‘Away’ for the Christmas/New year break. Here we are presented with a very Australian context and a roadmap of various issues that arise with two generations of Australians one of which has lived through the depression, one World War and are now living through the Vietnam War.

Michael Gow delicately weaves his tale in such a way that no thematic concern feels didactic or forced and while sticking firmly in reality, he playfully adds elements of Shakespearian story telling, namely the invasion of mischievous fairies in order to bring the ensemble together in the one location.

His ‘campers’ are veiled forms of the acting troupe who present their play, Pyramus and Thisby in A Midsummer Nights Dream.

With this fine writing afoot, you’re virtually safeguarded against making a wrong move in production.

There were some competent performances within the ensemble and those in the character roles were adept at changing and bringing about a different persona in a way that was entertaining.

The set was stripped right back to merely a sandy floor covering, a multi purpose rostra in the guise of a wharf, a mural of waves and a psych-used to bounce colours.

It was a practical design and allowed for ease of exits and entrances and was easily adaptable considering the many various locations and scene changes, a trait which Lyndelle found to be very filmic.

Although, this is not a rare piece of theatre, it is enjoyable and entertaining. Clearly, the writing after more than twenty years is as still current and it still captures that great Aussie tradition of heading away up the coast for hols - among other more social and politically contextual ideas! This is a fine rendering of a well known classic of Australian Theatre.


Phoenix Theatre presents
AWAY
by Michael Gow.

Venue: Zenith Theatre, Corner Railway and McIntosh Streets, Chatswood
Dates: March 21 - April 4
Times: Wed - Sat @ 8pm, Sun @ 5pm
Tickets: $23. Concession $18. Groups of 10(+), phone 9777 7547 for a very sweet deal. Schools & community groups welcome
Visit: www.phoenixtheatre.com.au