Gwen in Purgatory by Tommy Murphy

It began like a Lucille Ball style sitcom. Gwen, aged 90 (played elegantly by Melissa Jaffer) is alone in her new home with all the appliances still to be unpacked, but just can’t quite make it in time to pick up the telephone. The rings always stop just before her creaky bones get to the hand held phone on the kitchen bench top.

The gags continue as her grandson Dean (played by Nathanial Dean) arrives, not ostensibly to help her unpack, but to claim his inheritance, his grandfather’s Holden. Into the fray walks the sweet priest Father Ezekiel (played by Pancharo Mzembe) to bless the house.

It was all amusing, and became a little unrealistic when Gwen started preparing to play tennis, but just as the jokes began to wear a little thin, Gwen in Purgatory developed into a cracking drama. This was a family with more baggage than a Sydney airport carousel.

Gwen’s daughter Peg (played by Sue Ingleton) arrives. She’s a nervous wreck and is fighting the family push to have her move in, to look after her mother. Gwen’s son Laurie (played by Grant Dodwell) is a complete asshole and is fighting everyone.

I was seated next to the Director Neil Armfield during the performance and watched him take feverish notes. The attention to detail that was evident here, paid dividends on the stage.

What struck me were the rich portraits being painted. The aging matriarch, utterly alone and vulnerable; the daughter ravaged by nerves; the son, utterly without compassion; the grandson, haunted by being abandoned by his drug afflicted mother and a priest who had walked into a hornet’s nest.

I said to Neil Armfield that I had met many people who reminded me of the characters on the stage. This is a very fine night in the theatre.

David Spicer

Photo: Melissa Jaffer and Nathaniel Dean. Photographer - Heidrun Lohr

Read David Spicer's Q & A with playwright Tommy Murphy - www.stagewhispers.com.au/news/gwen-purgatory-–-a-q-and-a-with-playwright-tommy-murphy