A Different Way Home

Life can be difficult, but there’s always family. Sometimes, though, life is difficult because of family. Writer Jimmie Chinn understood this, better than most. His double monologue two act play is a gentle indictment of communication breakdown in a family, with enough bite and humour to be both thought-provoking and laughter inducing, along with a fair dose of poignancy. It’s not a great play, and Jimmie Chinn is no Alan Bennett, but it’s a good piece and a tailor-made performance vehicle for the right talent.

Lesley is lonely and can’t come to grips with losing his Mum. A sad, 60 something, insulated man who has never travelled, never really had a life apart from looking after his mum, Les blames his sister Maureen (from whom he’s estranged, though she lives around the corner) for marrying a Jew and thus destroying the family. Underlying his ramblings is the obvious guilt he can’t shake. In the second act Maureen reminisces and we realise how different things might have been.

Michael Dalton is a unique performer. Though we know him primarily as an entertainer though his alter ego Dolly Diamond, and some may have heard his terrific singing voice, Michael’s desire to stretch himself as an actor has really paid off. As Lesley he is endearing and annoying (intentionally so) in equal parts. His Les is a man lost, without purpose or intimacy in his life, and Dalton inhabits his skin as if it were made for him. Fragile, vulnerable, and with little flares of anger and resentment, Dalton creates Lesley as a totally three-dimensional credible human being and is able to touch us deeply without sinking into overt sentimentality, whilst at the same time reminding us of his bigotry and narrow mindedness.

As Maureen, uptight, neurotic, slightly bitter, justifying the choices she made that estranged her from the family, Dalton is equally impressive. There are subtleties in Maureen that would be easy to miss in lesser hands …Maureen claims her marriage is a great love match, and yet she never speaks her husband’s name…she decries what her siblings have, and yet there’s a deep sense of envy and regret that she hasn’t had what they take so lightly. Most of all, under the bitterness, there is hurt and pain, and Dalton taps all of it.

Zoe Warwick has clearly worked hard with Dalton and her direction has mined the emotional gold in the piece. There’s no credit for set design or wardrobe, but both look and feel perfectly lived in.

Don’t expect anything lofty or intellectual –that’s not the intent of cast or playwright.

This is a little gem that is never going to set the world alight, but it provides two hours of excellent entertainment and is the kind of production which should do well in an regional tour.

There are only three more performances so you need to be quick.

Coral Drouyn

Photographer: Betty Sujecki