Fracture lines in indie theatre
THEATRE
Fracture
By Lucy Clements
3 stars
Blue Room Theatre
How We Ruined MacArthur’s Markers
By Thomas Owen and Cal Silberstein
Music by Jackson Griggs
1.5 stars
Subiaco Arts Centre
Review: David Zampatti
Two debutante teams of producers are strutting their stuff in short seasons on Perth stages this week.
Lucy Clements and Harriet Roberts are stepping out from their final year at WAAPA with Clement’s psychological drama Fractured. They’ve done their due diligence and delivered a tight, crafty script in a perfect venue, realised by the established talent they’ve engaged, including director Joe Lui and designer Patrick Howe.
Tommy (Paul Grabovac) lives in a share house with Clara (Mikala Westall) and Charlie (James Marzac). He’s hiding from his wife Grace (Salacia Briggs) and an event that has blighted their lives. Grace’s arrival, to bring him home for its first anniversary, leads us to learn what has happened to them, and their infant daughter.
But things as incongruous as the house’s tiny kitchen tidy point to something more complex and disturbing beneath the surface.
Howe’s set is an unusual and effective use of the Blue Room space, and Grabovac, the most unselfconscious of actors, gives Fracture’s central role a convincing, natural feel.
He’s well supported by the rest of the cast and a straightforward staging by Lui. The script has some infelicities, and could do with some more effective relief from the pervasive gloom, but Fracture is a strong beginning for Clements and Roberts.
While Fracture looks forward to its creators’ future, Thomas Owen, Cal Silberstein and Jackson Griggs’ How We Ruined MacArthur’s Markers looks back to their days in UWA’s University Dramatic Society, where a version of it was produced last year.
Frankly, it’s a bit of a mess.
The story, of some corporate and other shenanigans around a pen-making business and the divided family that owns it, is okay enough, but it grinds to a halt under the weight of music with excruciatingly ill-fitting lyrics and unappealing melodies.
Some of the young cast do well (Madeline Croft’s dipsomaniac company lawyer and Sven Ironside’s love struck accountant had good nights), but most, mostly, were all at sea, and any attempt to keep things rattling along was scuttled by an unmanoeuvrable set.
MacArthur’s Markers, presented as part of the Perth Independent Theatre Festival, gave us little indication of the potential of either its creators or performers.
Fracture and How We Ruined MacArthur’s Markers end on Saturday.
