Away

It’s 1967, and three families, whose only connection is their relationship to the local school, meet after the performance of the school’s Christmas play.  Roy (Jim Adamik), the school’s principal, makes his end-of-year speech and wishes all a happy Christmas before greeting individual family members.  Roy’s embarrassingly aloof and strange wife, Coral (Andrea Close), floats unsociably in the background, attracting unfavourable comments.

As parents awkwardly gather to collect their children, the play’s two teenage stars, Tom (Callum Doherty) and Meg (Erin Blond), engage in a shy flirtation before their parents react to their children’s achievements.  Tom’s parent’s, Harry (Peter Fock) and Vic (Elaine Noon), couldn’t be prouder of their son, whilst Meg’s parents, Gwen (Christina Falsone) and Jim (Peter Stiles), are mildly dismissive of their daughter, Meg’s achievement.  Meg’s mother is especially more concerned about Meg’s friendship with Tom, whose parents are working-class poor.

Once home and behind closed doors, each family’s relationships come into sharp focus; private and public lives have little in common, and then there’s each person’s internal life.  No-one is doing it easy.

As it happens, the three families are holidaying at the Gold Coast, but far from its being for each of them a sweet, memorable holiday, round-the-clock exposure to one another intensifies secrets, hurts, anger, grief, and frustration, driving some to boiling point.  For others, though, it is a time that strengthens love and hope, in spite of life’s having worked out as it has.  When the after-effects of a storm throw the families together, facades crack, truths spill out, and the possibility emerges for a sharing of common humanity as, through the cast’s sensitive acting, one character after another reaches across the artificial and superficial social gaps between them.

REP’s Away was enhanced with authentic costuming, music that many of us will remember, lighting to match each scene’s mood, and a versatile and clever set.  And its experienced ensemble of actors, in the very capable hands of its director, Lainie Hart, created characters whom everyone can relate to.  Not only did they draw out with subtlety and aplomb how the past had shaped what each person had become, but they evoked sympathy and understanding to the point of allowing the audience to replace judgement with understanding.

The quiet intensity of much of the acting made REP’s Away a worthy journey.

Michele E. Hawkins.

Images: Upper: [L–R] Peter Stiles, Peter Fock, and Elaine Noon, in Away. Lower: Callum Doherty, in Away.