Pondlife teems with pleasures
THEATRE
The Ballad of Pondlife McGurk
By Andy Manley and Rob Evans
4 stars
Barking Gecko and Windmill Theatre Subiaco Arts Centre Studio
Review: David Zampatti
No one said school was meant to be easy, and for Simon and Martin, two young boys newly arrived at a primary school in Grade 6, it's going to be tough.
They're outsiders in a small world run by an in-crowd, the smart, vicious, Sharon McGuiness, her acolyte Anushka, and the jocks-in-training Colin and Stuart.
Still, two loners are better than one, and the boys bond over their shared sense of adventure and their love of comics.
They tag their tormentors "the Neanderthals", hole up in a hideaway they call "the Den" and start work on a comic book of their own.
That's not how The Ballad of Pondlife McGurk begins, though. Instead, we're in an airport terminal, 30-odd years later, as Martin nervously waits for Simon's plane to arrive from LA. The two boys, now entering middle age, haven't seen one another since school days.
Their estrangement, and the cruelties and betrayals that brought it about, are the story of the play.
It's a story well told by its writers, Andy Marley and Rob Evans, and its director, Gill Robertson, who created the original production for Scotland's Catherine Wheel Theatre Company in 2008.
And what a job its solo actor, Marko Jovanovic, does. He slides into his roles (as well as Simon, Martin and the Neanderthals, Jovanovich plays teachers, parents, and narrates) with disarming calm, but picks up his pace, and the show's temperature, on the battleground of the class and playground.
Jovanovic's characterisations are always distinct and often memorable - I dread to think what Sharon will grow up to be - and the kids in the audience (the play is recommended for eight and up) were clearly engaged, and following who was doing what with ease, even at the action's most breakneck.
Much of the play takes place in the late 1970s, and the soundtrack of hits from the period was fun for the parents - well, let's be honest here, grandparents - in the audience.
I'd have liked the sporting action adapted from the original British soccer to Australian footy, but it's unfair to ask for more from a play that already gives so much.
The Ballad of Pondlife McGurk ends on October 4.
