Lucy Bell

Scaffolding

22/08/24

Pleasance (Jack Dome), Edinburgh

Sheridan (Suzanna Hamilton) is in a bit of a fix. After the death of her husband, Emil, she is now the sole carer for her profoundly disabled daughter and has the Adult Social Care representatives snapping at her heels. And, despite having raised a massive amount of money for the restoration of her parish church’s steeple, she now finds that, because of a falling congregation, the church – and the grounds in which Emil is buried – are up for sale.

The vicar isn’t much help, even if he does bear more than a passing resemblance to Hugh Grant – the Notting Hill one, not Paddington 2 – so she’s made a perilous ascent up the titular scaffolding. Here is a place where she can contemplate her woes, not to mention all her recent purchases – the items necessary to build a powerful bomb…

This clever and affecting monologue, written by Lucy Bell and directed by Lillian Waddington, has about it the air of an Alan Bennett Talking Heads piece, a whole wealth of emotion masked by casual flippancy. Hamilton plays the role with assurance, building steadily from nervous anticipation to open despair as she realises she has reached a significant crossroads in her life – and the end of her tether. Bell’s script is equally agile, by turns humorous, acerbic and, ultimately, heartbreaking.

Alice Sales’ set design keeps Hamilton constrained within its claustrophobic confines, emphasising Sheridan’s dilemma. I can feel her building frustration as the story approaches its conclusion. I think I know where all this is headed… but the denouement confounds all my expectations.

In the final days of this year’s Fringe, here’s another production that’s worth catching if you get the chance. It may also be the only show on offer where every single member of the audience gets to be God for an hour. Which, let’s face it, isn’t an offer you get every day.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney

Emerald City

26/03/20

Digital Theatre 

We’ve managed to find ways to get our cinematic fix from home, but what about theatre? In the normal run of things, we’d be out two or three times a week watching shows, but these are extraordinary times. Thank goodness then for Digital Theatre, which, for a modest £9.99 per month, gives us access to a whole range of top-level productions. A quick glance through their offerings reveals that there’s plenty of Shakespeare on there, musical theatre and a lot more – but tonight we’re in the mood for something completely new to us, so we opt for the Australian National Theatre’s production of Emerald City by David Williamson.

Set in the 1980s, it’s the story of Colin (Mitchell Butell), a critically acclaimed screenwriter, recently moved from arty Melbourne to money-obsessed Sydney, where all the big Australian film deals happen (think Australia’s Hollywood). Colin and his wife, Kate (Lucy Bell), who works in publishing, move into a modest apartment with their children (whom we never see nor have any real sense of) and Colin sets about writing a long cherished project, based on his Uncle’s wartime experiences. His hard-bitten agent, Elaine (Jennifer Hagen), isn’t keen on the premise, which she feels just isn’t commercial enough.

At a party, Collin encounters Mike (Ben Winspear), a wannabe screenwriter with more ambition than his slender talents can support – but he does have a bullish approach that seems to get results. The two men team up on Colin’s project, though Mike is clearly more keen to work on his own idea, a kind of Australian Miami Vice. Colin soon finds himself unhealthily fixated on Mike’s girlfriend, Helen (Kelly Paterniti), and she is clearly interested in him. As the two men’s lives become increasingly entangled, Colin’s professional integrity – and Kate’s – come up against some unexpected challenges.

At first, I’m not at all sure about this production. The garish and unconventional stage set is rather unsettling, with the actors moving out into the audience, along a kind of V-shaped thrust design. Characters keep breaking off from conversations with each other to confide their innermost thoughts to the audience which again, takes a little time to get used to. But, once into the rhythms of Williamson’s approach, the piece embeds itself and starts to pay dividends.

This is a dry and witty play that constantly points up how difficult it is to have integrity in a world that is so fixated on financial results. The eternal conflict between art and commerce provides the real meat of this story. Winspear offers a bruising depiction of toxic masculinity and Hagen somehow manages to be the personification of every literary agent I’ve ever met. Some of the developments are wildly funny – I love the idea of a publisher flying first class to the Booker Prize ceremony when the author of the nominated book has decided not to go because she disagrees with the very idea of it!

I have thus far had no knowledge of Australian theatre but Emerald City proves to be a rewarding first dip into its unknown waters.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney