Sydney Reviews

Left - Hollie Andrew, Amanda Muggleton and Jonathan Prescott. Cover - Amanda Muggleton and Matilda Ridgway. Photos - Steve Lunam

The Ensemble Theatre’s stage has yet again transported through time and space to another era on the opposite side of the world - this time to a modest farm in Indianna in 1927.

When the lights dim, the set revels dirt- smudged Ruby Sunrise (Matilda Ridgway), brightly recounting the moment of grand inspiration in which the previously undiscovered concept of “tell-a-vision” came to her. She is a remarkably bright and capable young woman who is largely self taught by her self-taught father who fills her full of facts from Popular Mechanics magazines. Before too long, we realise she is a runaway, who has sought refuge in Aunt Lois’ barn. Aunt Lois (Amanda Muggleton) yearns for Ruby’s father and is soothed by alcohol housed in red glass bottles and her strapping young university boarder Henry (Jonathan Prescott). Before too long, Ruby’s grand ambition to build a “tell-a-vision” from stolen parts and modified materials becomes all-consuming, as is Henry’s burgeoning love for her.

The story, post interval, then shifts twenty or so years (and location) to the office of a television station in New York in which Ruby’s daughter Lulu (Catherine McGraffin) is working as a script assistant. When script writer Tad Rose (Glenn Hazeldine) is commissioned by fast talking boss Martin Marcus (Paul Gleeson) to write a show for the station, Lulu tells him the story of her mother - Ruby Sunrise.

Surprising to note that this is a contemporary script, written by Rinne Groff (one of the writers of the highly popular television series writers Weeds, and for those who saw The Gatz earlier this year at the Sydney Opera House - she is one of the founding members of New York based company Elevator Repair Service.) For this feels like an old script with its quaint and mellow undertones - a glossy yet ironic view of the entertainment industry, that would rival Singing in the Rain’s take on the introduction to “talkies.” There is something sweet about its simple sense of history - a time of fireflies and barns, and when rural isolation was common - and technology hadn’t quite facilitated our every need and whim.

Both mother (Ruby) and daughter (Lulu) have challenges and obstacles - both suffer in their careers despite good intentions, hard work and talent. The most interesting ideas in this play centre around the ideas of how technology - how television will change and shape the world in its pure democracy. Ruby talks of the grand democracy that will come as a result of every person being able to have access to information and news - that even perhaps television would stop war, because “who could bear to see war right in your own living room?” Ruby’s idealism and passion is however compromised by flawed process, lacking resources and isolation - and what chance does a brilliant girl with great ideas have up against the scientists of this world who are well resourced? What chance does a script assistant with a brilliant story to tell have, in the face of those expert executives who would corrupt it through compromise and catastrophic casting choice?

According to a recent interview The Ruby Sunrise is director, Sandra Bates’s 100^th show - no mean feat for a director and this is a very clear story about the limitations life puts on success, which is executed in a very simple way. The Ensemble Theatre’s reputation for palatable, agreeable, clear theatre is very much maintained.


Ensemble Theatre presents
The Ruby Sunrise
by Rinne Groff

Venue: Ensemble Theatre 78 McDougall St Kirribilli
Previews: 8 - 14 October
Dates: 15 October - 14 November 2009
Times: Performance times vary - see www.ensemble.com.au for details
Tickets: $39-$63 (booking charges may apply)
Bookings: 02 9929 0644 or www.ensemble.com.au