Left – Bjorn Stewart. Cover – Billie Rose Prichard. Photos – Heidrun Lohr.Angela Betzien’s spellbinding thriller, The Dark Room, is a remarkable play and director, Leticia Caceres has assembled a high calibre, faultless cast who do this short, taut production absolute justice. A word of advice, The Dark Room has only just opened and already the first weeks are sold out and the production has been extended. Downstairs at Belvoir has very limited seating. If you want to see one of the most riveting productions of the year, be quick.
Set in a town in the Northern Territory, The Dark Room cuts between three separate, intertwined stories which take place in same motel room at different times. Set designer, Michael Hankin’s motel room is on a tiny, tiny stage that can’t be any bigger than a small bedroom. As new actors appear on the stage to play out their scenes, the previous actors remain on the stage squatting in a corner, sitting in a chair, even lying on the same bed. Towards the end, all six actors are on stage together.
In the first story, social worker Anni, played by Leah Purcell, is minding Grace (Billie Rose Pritchard), a deeply traumatised, hooded, filthy and scarred teenage girl. Anni has brought Grace to a motel room while she is trying to find emergency accommodation for her and she is trying to reassure her that she is now in a safe place (apparently social workers are often required to mind “at risk” children in motels – sometimes for months – until suitable foster care or institutional accommodation is secured). Leah Purcell is wonderful as the calm, compassionate, steady Anni who spends her days quietly and bravely dealing with troubled kids like Grace. Billie Rose Pritchard is electric as the adolescent, very much on the edge.
The second story is about Stephen, a policeman and his pregnant wife, Emma. Stephen has been drinking all day at his boss’s wedding and is trying to convince his wife to let him go out and drink through the night with the boys. Emma (Anna Lise Phillips) has some deep resentment towards Stephen’s policeman mates, hates the dingy motel room and wants Stephen to stay with her. Stephen is played by the magnificent Brendan Cowell (if you have never seen him onstage, you are doing yourself a disservice). Cowell has such honesty and intelligence about his performance and it is mesmerising. Anna Lise Phillips’ Emma is a robust match for Cowell’s Stephen. Originally from Sydney, Stephen and Emma are finding the realities of working in a dysfunctional community harrowing.
The third story deals with his boss, Craig, the groom. It is set before the wedding and he is about to go up before an inquest into the death in custody of a teenage, indigenous transvestite, Joseph (Bjorn Stewart). Craig is an old school, third generation, unreconstructed, hard as nails policeman, terrifyingly played by Cameron Stewart.
The tensions that play out between these six characters will have you on the edge of your seat. At 80 minutes long, The Dark Place is a toe curling thriller. Inspired by the Northern Territory Intervention into Indigenous Communities, The Dark Room takes a sober and balanced look at one of the grim issues of contemporary Australian discourse: the abuse of defenceless children, whether they be indigenous or non indigenous and whether it is at the hands of their families or by the police.
Belvoir presents
The Dark Room
by Angela Betzien
Director Leticia Caceres
Venue: Downstairs, Belvoir St Theatre | 25 Belvoir St Surry Hills, NSW
Dates: 3 November – 11 December
Tickets: $32 – $42
Bookings: 02 9699 3444 | www.belvoir.com.au
