Tales from Outer Suburbia an absolute delight
1 Dec 10
We knew that this performance was going to be very different from previous FYRE plays when The Buffalo (Hayden Martin) looked straight into our eyes and took command of the stage.
With the spotlights on the set, simple but luminous suggestions of a suburban back lanes and homey interiors, I thought back to the exciting intimacy of the old Nimrod Theatre (now Belvoir).
We all felt utterly ready for some great theatre, and we were not disappointed!
Sarah Butler has built a play around the central vignettes of Tales of Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan.
To bring it to the stage more narrative structure has been used so that the interwoven stories of old people alone, a family with an unusual visitor, a couple whose interminable fighting drives their young daughter to disengage from reality, and a young woman seeking her place in the world, jostle with the antics with the neighbourhood kids and incidental characters.
The characters interact and comment on each other and story builds to an intriguing
community ritual, The Nameless Holiday.
In changing the structure this way, opportunities have been created for 30 players aged 8-18 to act, play music or sing and, in the case of the older cast, narrate at different points in the play. It is no mean feat to co-ordinate a cast of this size, give each a meaningful part geared to their experience and produce a work that, while it draws on the work of a noted children’s author, is a mature work suitable for adult audiences.
It was interesting how this play worked for different age groups.
My 8 year old son asked me if I understood it. At his age it was hard to understand how the disparate elements came together as a narrative. As an adult, I would have preferred fewer reprises of to reinforce the key characters, yet you could see how the youths enjoyed tackling the alternative mind set and worldview of quirky adult characters. We adults responded openly to the drama of the piece – Sophie MacGregor’s take on the awful Mrs Rigby was hilarious; and some wept as a past situation or person came to mind.
Most of these young people have been studying drama for three years now, and it shows. This production had them acting naturally and believably in character, moving across the stage with confidence and ease, delivering monologues and dialogue of some length and, at times, reaching into our hearts.
To illustrate how far FYRE drama has come in this time, one need only think back to the last two productions.
In 2008’s production Where the Wild Things Are we saw our youth delivering simple lines in choreographed groups with lots of colour, movement and dance.
In 2009 we saw three of the older players handle physical theatre supporting a monologue of Alexander’s Horrible Day. In Jabberwocky, some of the younger players were speaking longer parts and learning to engage with gesture and stance.
In this production, in contrast, we saw natural speech and gesture across the entire cast. Sarah’s unflinching insistence on the basic skills of theatre has paid off.
At 60 minutes, this is the longest play that we have seen from FYRE Drama.
The cast has grown in stature and in numbers.
This was an excellent and highly professional production that played to three full houses at the Upper River Hall in November.
It was of a standard that merits wider attention, and one can only imagine that this will be the next step for this committed theatre group.
Kerrie McLeod