Away

Michael Gow’s classic Australian play has been given a light and airy production by Timothy Hall with the third year graduating drama students from Griffith University.

Gow’s play, set in 1967, about three families from different socio-economic backgrounds who converge on the Gold Coast for their annual summer holidays, has been revived constantly and studied by at least two generations of school children since its premiere in 1986.

It’s a sound choice for this student production. Tom (Harrison Hughes) is the burgeoning actor son of English immigrants Harry (Nikita Khromykh) and Vic (Ally Hickey). He’s dying of leukemia. His parents try to keep it from him, but he is acutely aware of his plight. Their holiday is of modest proportions, pitching a tent beside their car at the beach.

Attracted to Meg (Matilda Simmons) after being paired in their school’s end-of-year production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, they meet up again on holiday. Meg has an over-bearing mother, Gwen (Sarah McNally) whose is critical of everyone and everything, and a father Jim (Kaloyan Koilichki) who is non-judgemental, but caring. They holiday in an up-market caravan.

Roy (Oscar Thelander), Tom and Meg’s headmaster and director of The Dream, is going through a difficult time with his wife Coral (Triona Giles), who suffers from severe bouts of depression due to losing their son in Vietnam. They holiday in a luxury hotel. A storm brings them all together on a deserted beach.

Hughes was a shining light as Tom, bringing pathos and desperation to the role, especially in the propositioning/seduction scene with Meg. Simmons was also a force as the object of his crush – sweet and affectionate, and letting him down with compassion when she can’t (or won’t) follow through on his sexual request.

Students playing older adults is always problematical, but Thelander was truly excellent as headmaster Roy, and McNally successfully mined Gwen’s character with sharp comic characterization and affecting sympathy. Sophie Messina also stood out as the Woman. Hill follows through on Gow’s conceit of topping and tailing the play with Shakespearean quotes by adding an ensemble of black-hooded menacing spirits that at times punctuate the action.

The play has been double-cast so some performances feature different actors in some roles.

Peter Pinne     

READ THE FIRST PAGES AND BUY THE PLAY HERE.