Jurassica.

Depicting three generations of an Italian-Australian family, Jurassica weaves backward and forward to unravel the estrangements between grandfather, father, and son, using English and Italian dialogue to great effect.  The play is not entirely realistic: individual speech and action substitutes, in places, tropes for substantial content, and old / middle-aged / teen stereotypical characteristics for individual character traits, resulting in anachronisms of character.  And several developments between characters occur with no apparent cause.

Whatever the script may lack in realism of character and relationships, though, the production’s actors and crew made up for through imaginative staging and superb acting that relied heavily on faultless timing.  Body language and the tone of their delivery well conveyed some of the meaning of longer passages of Italian (superbly recited by the lead grandparents’ players, Joe Petruzzi and Caroline Lee).  But both English and Italian were crisply articulated, the Q’s acoustics cooperating perfectly in conveying every syllable to the back of the (admittedly not very large) auditorium.  And the complex interweaving of up to three simultaneous timelines was handled so well using lighting and partitioning of spaces that it left little room for confusion and in fact suggested connections that might otherwise have remained obscure.

This unusual play is worth seeing just for its interesting interplay of scenes.  The skill with which Red Stitch’s actors inhabit their characters, though, makes it a play to ponder for days.

John P. Harvey