This Way Up is the debut production/performance for the newly created Merland Productions. Formed out of the professional union of actors Alison Meredith and Adam Cleland, This Way Up will be the first of many anticipated theatre and film projects for the company. This Way Up could be best described as your typical garden-variety tale in what is a soap styled drama about love and human relationships. There are no ups or downs, highs or lows in this anti-tragedy, just the usual bumps that eventually become the grind of a play devoid of any substance. This Way Up, written by well-known Australian playwright Elizabeth Coleman, provides no evidence of what Coleman is reputed for.
From a lounge room setting the audience gets to observe the tedious day-to-day life of a high maintenance, neurotic Melanie (Meredith), girlfriend of foreign correspondent/journalist Nick (Cleland) whose relationship is the focus of the story. Pitted against the strained lovers is the dowdy, intellectual, overshadowed younger sister Krissie (Louise Bartok), who brought wit and some well timed, adlibbed moments into the fray. And the goofy mutual family friend and object of Krissie's affection Damien (Alex Harris), who was exemplary as being much needed comic relief from Melanie's incessant demanding.
Here’s the story in a nutshell, girlfriend doesn’t want boyfriend working away all the time and if he doesn’t stop she will leave him. Goofy family friend is in love with pretty older sister and hopes the break-up will work in his favour, meanwhile overlooked and under pretty younger sister yearns for his attention. Overlaying this particularly passé drama is a simultaneous sequence, involving a siege that takes place in the neighbour’s house over a husband and wife disagreement about football teams. Sporadic updates on this hostile situation are delivered by police officer (Deborah Jones) acting as liaison between the neighbours.
The siege, which was meant to be the cathartic twist in the plot that would eventually deliver the prophetic moral to the story, lacked credibility and therefore didn’t function within the play’s matrix. Having said that, there were moments of humour but they were brief and not sufficient enough for this play to be classified as a comedy. And I saw no attempts by the script to tug at the heartstrings of the audience, which made the play thematically flimsy and possessing a thin veneer. I felt that this was not a good choice of script to debut a production company, which aspires to create more of its kind. A more evocative production would have created engaging theatre.
Given that all of the actors showed an astute ability in their craft, I felt that good direction could have salvaged the script and led this play out of the doldrums. Director Andrew Doyle would have been better off had he decided to translate the play into a parody of itself rather than attempting to remain loyal to the intended sentiment. Instead, what was presented was an exposition of amateur standards, making This Way Up not one for the discerning theatregoer.
Merland Productions presents
This Way Up
by Elizabeth Coleman
Directed by Andrew Doyle
Venue: Newtown Theatre | Corner King and Bray Street, Newtown
Dates: Tuesday to Saturday, July 28 - August 15, 2009
Tickets: Adult $25, Concession $20, Cheap Tuesday $20
Bookings: 02 8507 3034 or www.newtowntheatre.com.au
