Tusk Tusk

Sitting in the front row allows one to see everything, every detail or lack thereof. Tusk Tusk opened with promise but then within minutes lost me. I was in a constant state of wondering. Why are the characters doing this? Who is this person? I don’t know, but for some reason, this play just didn’t work for me. I’m putting it down to the writing.
Writer Polly Stenham brought audiences That Face and now Tusk Tusk, which is about two teenagers, played by Airlie-Jane Dodds and Miles Szanto, and a kid aged seven, with Kai Lewins and Zac Ynfante alternating in the role, dealing with the effects of a mother who has gone AWOL. They have to deal with snoopy neighbours, getting and making meals and trying to keep their heads above water while they try to work out where their mother has gone.
They live in what looks like a squat, with a tired sofa, tatty curtains, paint on the walls and lots of boxes everywhere, however they’re obviously middle-class by the sound of their accents and overall demeanors.
In the first act the teens go from being worried and on-edge to larking about and having a bit of fun. The male character, Eliot, brings home a ‘common’ blonde girl played by Krew Boylan. The funniest moment in the whole play is when she falls through the window onto the sofa and although Boylan plays a minimal part, she is the most believable. At the end of the act the little boy falls from the boxes and gashes his head. Although well acted by the flustered teenagers it just doesn’t work. It doesn’t confront anything or lead them to do anything.
The young people have to work hard with this script. It seems it doesn’t give them much. It’s not particularly clever or amusing. There don’t seem to be clear arcs or shifts in the characters. Therefore it’s hard to develop a great deal of empathy for the characters, because a lot of the time it’s all a bit confusing. It doesn’t seem to ‘say’ anything or move us in any way. In the second act when Eliot flies into a rage we don’t really feel much; there’s no build-up in the writing to give real reason for the outburst. He delivers well and competently but the message, the writing, it just doesn’t deliver and we’re still asking the questions, is the mother psychotic? An addict? Will she return?
The teens were completely on top of their performances; there were no opening night nerves or dropped lines. They were competent, assured and confident and I absolutely commend them for delivering so well within the confines of a pretentious, frustrating script.
Towards the end of the play we are introduced to two adult characters, Roland (Cameron Stewart) and Katie (Marta Dusseldorp), and we discover that Roland had an affair with the AWOL mother but because we didn’t know the mother and/or Roland we really don’t care. The big fight that erupts between Eliot and Roland is delivered well buy Szanto, but just does not matter to us.
Everyone involved in the production has done the best they can with this script.
If this had been a ‘reading’, a more of a ‘work-in-progress’ piece, then I would have been more inclined to think it possibly had merit, although with lots of amendments needed.
If you are a fan of Stenham’s writing and you enjoyed That Face, you might love this play, do not let this deter you from going along and seeing Tusk Tusk, delivered the best it can be by this enthusiastic, talented young cast.
Emma Bell

Airlie-Jane Dodds and Miles Szanto in Tusk Tusk by Polly Stenham (Photo by Brett Boardman).