True meaning of life? It goes on

ANDREW Bovell’s interesting play was new to me and has a lot to recommend it in this production with a very strong cast directed by Lynda Lewis.

Although originally written and set in Australia it could perfectly well be set here as Lewis acknowledges by having the cast use British accents. Perhaps the play is unusual because there aren’t any minor characters. There is instead a family of six – mother and father and four siblings who bit by bit reveal themselves as each tells their own story while interacting with the others. There is a clear suggestion of a tightly knit happy family at the beginning in designer Richard Moore’s lovely unitary set garden.

It doesn’t take long for the audience to realise that the family is not so tightly knit and not so happy either as Alice Arthur’s Rosie recounts her experiences of being conned, robbed, abused and abandoned while abroad.

One by one we see the traumas that each of the grown up children face: romantic, sexual, financial and self-identities. It becomes clear to the audience, although not to the characters, that even though they have all lived their separate lives, they have never really separated from the happy family fantasy.

The original production involved physical movement by Frantic Assembly which Lewis says “enhanced the emotional impact of the joys and struggles of people just trying to do their best.” I wasn’t convinced by her decision to include that here as, although it certainly revealed the physical skills of the actor , I couldn’t see it as more than decorative and 2016 Australian trendy.

Nevertheless, this is a powerful and provocative play exploring ideas of control, the enigmatic nature of happiness, the perils of too much love, ending with loneliness and the final message: “It goes on, life; it goes on.”

BY PETER BUCKROYD