Cloudstreet

Cloudstreet
Adapted by Nick Enright and Justin Monjo from the novel by Tim Winton. Malthouse Theatre. May 6 – June 16, 2019

This feat of theatre is epic and audiences are ‘loving it’.   It is exquisitely staged, clever and entrancing.

Tim Winton’s story is about two young families, the Pickles and the Lambs, who share a ramshackle house, as their children grow and lives change in the decades after WWII.  Some aspects of each family develop and some disintegrate.  It is a much-loved work and a favorite Australian novel of many.

Spending five or so hours in the theatre with the Pickles and the Lambs is like reliving a recognizable past.  This journey back into an age of innocence, it is heartwarming as adapted for us by Nick Enright and Justin Monjo.   

I was born in the 1950’s and it took me back to my childhood - back to an era gone by – an Australia where kids and dogs were pretty much free to roam where they liked.  In this incarnation, Cloudstreet is like a sentimental haunting from our rugged but kinder past, put into sharp relief by the backdrop of how we live now.  It is a sentimental journey – too.

The story is also placed in sharp and focused relief by a stylized and unyielding metallic looking sliding set (though it must be said that this was often tempered by the marvelous lighting of Paul Jackson).

Stunningly staged, the set by Zoe Atkinson is a grand feat, though often austere and overpowering.  Due to the vastness of the staging and the grandeur of the set, the characters seem to be dwarfed.  This also elicits a hint of an omnipresent being and possibly a nod to Winton’s religious sensibilities.  Though it could also represent our otherness in relation to this country’s ‘Ancient Dreaming’.

The utilization of water is extraordinary.  It fashions and enhances moments of the ‘magic realism’, thank fully, as such moments are a beguiling feature of the book.

Much of the acting is very fine and patently supported by Zoe Atkinson’s costuming.  Natasha Herbert as the alcoholic Dolly Pickle is amazing.  She totally immerses herself, and transforms vocally and physically into her damaged and often drunken character.  Herbert’s Dolly is movingly vulnerable and venomously vicious at the same time. 

Alison White’s Oriel Fish is completely believable. Oriel is a woman who seems to have had much of the life sucked out of her through nurturing her family.  She despairingly craves the sanctity of solitude and moves into a tent.  Heartwarmingly ,the Lamb family is generous enough to allow each other sufficient space for her to be able to do this seemingly without judgment.

Brenna Harding as the young Rose Pickles is delightful to watch as she wrestles with the shame of her background and fashioning a happy life and future.

Greg Stone perfectly channels a bloke and kind well-meaning dad of he era.  Bert La Bonte, a lovely physical presence as Sam Pickles, conveys a pretty unlucky but uninspired resource-less coot. Guy Simon’s Quick is a perfectly pitched, forthright, genuine young lad.  Benjamin Oakes as Fish Lamb is cast from the ranks of ‘Back to Back’ Theatre – a splendid choice.  All other various roles are nicely executed.

Excellent balance in vocal capacities is achieved due to the technical wonder of ‘state of the art’ microphones and superb control of sound levels.  This allows for the more experienced as well as less experienced actors to all be comfortably heard from anywhere in the auditorium.

Sound (J. David Franke) and composition (Elizabeth Drake) are complex.  An exquisitely realized sound surround plays a massive part in creating and enhancing atmosphere and supporting the actors.  However towards the end, sound feels a little unrelenting.

As the run is coming towards its closure I am sure the production will be enhanced with nuance and its own mysterious unique magic.  All actors will have further developed and enriched their characters since the early production I witnessed.

For me, I truly enjoyed it, but, for my sensibilities, the unyielding set and haunting echoes from Australia’s First Peoples, although of vital relevance to us as a country, felt like incongruous add-ons that didn’t sit comfortably with the essence of the original text.  An now - the more I think of it - the more I wonder if the emphasis would be better placed on our often futile attempts to heal from the massive carnage and disorientation of the Second World War and ensuing depression.

These are barely examined scars we carry with us too.

Never-the-less an amazing feat of theatre making.

Suzanne Sandow

Photographer: Pia Johnson

Credits

Direction Matthew Lutton

Set and Costume Design – Zoe Atkinson

Lighting Design – Paul Jackson

Sound Design – J. David Franke

Composition – Elizabeth Drake

Associate Director – Katt Osborne

Sound Operator – Blake Stickland

Stage Manager – Natalie Rowan

Cast

Arielle Gray, Brenna Harding, Natasha Herbert, Bert LaBonte, Ebony McGuire, Mikayla Merks, Ian Michael, Benjamin Oakes, Scott Sheridan, Guy Simon, Greg Stone, Alison Whyte

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