How I Learned To Drive

How I Learned To Drive
By Paula Vogel. Director: Chris Baldock. MockingBird Theatre Company (Vic). Brunswick Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre. May 3 – 18, 2013.

The combination of a Pulitzer Prize winning play and an exemplary new theatre company, in the hands of an extraordinary and empathetic director produces an evening of theatre that will never be forgotten.

Vogel’s play about child abuse by a family member and the subsequent impact on a growing girl is a harrowing, humorous and spiritually uplifting experience which moved many of last night’s opening audience to tears. This production understands every nuance, every piece of subtext and involves us so totally in the journey, that we share the experience with L’il Bit in all its horror and ultimate triumph.

It’s difficult to see how this fledgling (this is only its third production) can keep raising the bar of quality that it resets for itself with every offering. The company runs on passion – and very little else. The set…three rostrums and a projection screen…uses four yellow chairs and we’ve seen them before. The same chairs were blue in The Laramie Project and will no doubt be red in some other production. It doesn’t matter. Director Chris Baldock doesn’t need flashy sets. His trappings are truth and passion and honesty, his tools are the truly gifted young actors he casts so perfectly.

Sarah Reuben brings L’il Bit to life is an astonishing way….moving backwards and forwards in the chronology of the piece. One moment she’s 17, then she’s 12, then 16, then 11. The subtle shadings of aging and of attitude are a wonder to behold. When pieced together we realise that we see her at first holding the power over the sexually abusive Uncle Peck, controlling the situation, manipulating the obsessed man. It is only when we finally work backwards in our minds to the birth of the abuse that we understand L’il Bit’s strength, and the need to wrest the power away from Peck in order to survive. It’s a stunning performance from this amazing young actress. Every choice that she and the director have made is far from the only one, but it is always the RIGHT one.

Jason Cavanagh is nothing less than heart-breaking perfection as Uncle Peck. We want to hate this paedophile – and yet there’s a humanity, a vulnerability, and a melancholy about this performance that makes us feel true sympathy for the man….even when it is revealed, in a chilling scene, that his abuse isn’t limited to his young niece. His acting is staggering and comes totally from inner truth. He is, quite simply, what all young actors should aspire to. It’s truly remarkable art and craft at work.

Andrea McCannon, Juliet Hindmarsh, and Sebastian Bertoli play multiple roles as the Greek Chorus – all are excellent, as we’d expect. Scott Middleton has brought his multiple skills to production managing, and Jason Bovaird’s lighting plot is simple but stunning.

But it is Chris Baldock’s direction that takes us to another place, that gives us that ache in the gut, and the lump in the throat, the pricking behind the eyelids. He touches our souls. We’re so lucky that he shares his gift with us, the audience.

Coral Drouyn

Images: Jason Cavanagh and Sarah Reuben & Jason Cavanagh.

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