Bumming With Jane

Written by Tahli Corin (actor-trained in Adelaide), Bumming With Jane had its debut in 2008 at Belvoir St Downstairs, Sydney.  The work is inspired by the poem of the same name by German/American underground writer Charles Bukowski but doesn’t quite attain the sense of depravity Bukowski might approve of with his infamous, nothing-to-lose truthful approach to writing.

Upon entering we are presented with two characters slouched on a faded couch while watching television and drinking wine.  As the house lights dim we discover they are playing a desultory game of ‘Six degrees of Kevin Bacon’.  The scene is one of squalor with rubbish and tat spread about and the ‘apartment’ framed through the use of temporary metal construction fencing.  Patrick and Bev banter about nothing much and there are hints of sexual tension between the two.  As Jane arrives home after resigning from her job, tension between the two women comes to the fore.

As the play progresses Patrick and Jane’s relationship brought to mind a tame version of the infamous Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen pairing: excessive drinking, loved-up one moment and yelling at each other the next.  Patrick and Jane live in a state of carefree poverty, thrive on dumpster-diving for food (with occasionally disastrous results), exist of barely warm baked beans and alcohol while pawning their meagre possessions to purchase more booze.  They are also six months behind in the rent and landlord Bev is not above suggesting that Patrick sort out what is owed by visiting her apartment and getting down and dirty.  Patrick and Jane also have a twisted agreement where one of them works while the other gets to ‘bum’ around the apartment until it is time to swap those roles.

Stephen Schofield is an actor and fine singer with a strong stage presence and a graduate of Adelaide College of the Arts.  He graces Patrick with as much range as the writing allows and traverses the character’s emotions well.  As Bev, Georgia Laity shines with her excellent vocal strength and comedic timing and gets to play with the character’s sarcastic overtones.  Laity is a recent Flinders Drama Centre graduate and clearly has the acting skill to forge a great career.  As excellent as Laity was, the role really demanded an older actor for believability.  Bev was clearly meant to be middle-aged as the owner of an apartment block preying on a younger man.  The character of Jane was portrayed by Alicia Selkirk who is still studying at WAAPA.  Again the writing, while clever and witty in parts, was not deep or connected enough narratively for this actor to round out her role.  It was difficult to find empathy for Jane and her increasingly precarious journey and that is disastrous for a theatre work.  Selkirk was also less convincing with some of the conflict scenes remaining implausible due to her shrill vocal tone when signifying anger.

Director Hannah Smith is still developing her craft and this is her first production in Adelaide after staging Bumming With Jane as a Teen Challenge fundraiser in Murray Bridge last year.  In the main, Smith has shaped the work thoughtfully with good use of the space but as a whole, the play is not overly satisfying.  The writing in Bumming With Jane has tried, I believe, to celebrate resilience and invention as a way to deal with poverty.  It also seems to applaud the carefree times that come with being in lust, or love, where nothing is too difficult to overcome.  Until it is.  Unfortunately, the writing and the narrative is not profound enough to endow an audience with a deep connection to these characters. 

The set and lighting by Ricardo Parisella all worked quite well with director Smith using a combination of realistic props and sounds juxtaposed against ‘pop-out’ moments of magical realism.  The use of Doris Day songs during scene shifts was amusing as a device of contrast.  On one level we had the fantasy of domestic bliss and sugar-sweet romantic love represented in music set against the drama of neglect, conflict and hopelessness surrounding Patrick and Jane as their ‘ragged-arse’ carefree existence decays and becomes toxic.  I do wonder at the use of bottled wine though!  Anyone who has existed in such destitute circumstances at some stage of their lives knows the undeniable ‘value’ that lies in a 4 litre cask of alcohol.

I look forward to seeing the future endeavours of all the individuals involved in 2021’s iteration of Bumming With Jane as their careers continue to prosper.

Lisa Lanzi

Photographer: Nick Hassan