Signs of Life.

We were spoiled by Cloudstreet, an epic novel filled with wonderful characters that was also a sensation as a stage play. Tim Winton’s novel Dirt Music has a similar epic and broad brushed landscape. It concludes with a plane crash.

If you are expecting an exhilarating night of action in this style you might be a little underwhelmed by the scope and pace of Signs of Life.

Tim Winton picks the story up after Dirt Music is finished. 

Georgie Jutland (Heather Mitchell) is experiencing intense loneliness. It was beautifully illustrated by the set and soundscape. You could feel the baked Western Australian outback.

Georgie comes to terms with having strangers arrive at her doorstep late at night. They are Bender (Aaron Pedersen) and Mona (Pauline Whyman), an indigenous brother and sister emerging from the night with arguing voices, car doors slamming and weeping.

Looking on was George Shevtsov as the ghost of Luther Fox. This is a character that the late Heath Ledger was lining up to play in a movie adaptation of Dirt Music and Russell Crowe has also been linked to in recent times. In the play Luther Fox didn’t have much to do.

There was unease as to where the story was heading. Was this a thriller where strangers enter a house and cause harm?

It pulled back from that path with some lashings of humour as we warm to the characters as they fight their demons.

David Spicer

Images: (top) George Shevtsov and Heather Mitchell & (lower) Heather Mitchell, George Shevtsov, Aaron Pedersen and Pauline Whyman in Signs of Life. Photographer: Lisa Tomasetti.