Never Did Me Any Harm

Never Did Me Any Harm
Force Majeure / Sydney Theatre Company / Sydney Festival. Wharf 1. January 6 – February 12, 2012.

Never Did Me Any Harm, the collaborative work between the Sydney Theatre Company and Force Majeure for the Sydney Festival has all the right ingredients - a great cast, and fantastic director in Kate Champion and of course the production firepower of the STC behind it.

But this show - so full of promise, misses the mark and quickly descends into cliché and repetitive questions regarding that hot-button issue of “over parenting” and the “bubble generation“.

Never Did Me Any Harm takes its cue from The Slap and although it is highly derivative it doesn’t take the issues of parenting kids today any further. What it does is show example after example of quirky, semi-humorous scenarios of bad parenting.

While this is mildly entertaining, as a viewer it really does leave you hankering for more depth. It’s disappointing because throughout the show there is ample opportunity for a fresh direction to be taken, to pose news questions and perhaps offer interesting answers.

Despite the lack of sparkle to the show’s central themes there are times when they are presented in an intriguing way. Kate Champion’s movement direction is at times very interesting and the cast do perform at a high level. It also must be said that Geoff Cobham’s lighting design and Max Lyandvert’s sound are both fabulous and tend to be the stars of the show.

But the overall way that this production just flirts with and never really gets down to the nub of the issue or problem makes this production about as irritating as a misbehaving child at a barbeque. Where is Alex Dimitriades when you need him?

Whitney Fitzsimmons

Images: Josh Mu and Alan Flower & Marta Dusseldorp, Alan Flower and Vincent Crowley. Photographer: Lisa Tomasetti. 

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