Crocodiles

Crocodiles lie low in the water, unnoticed yet visible; in this new show, the co-founder of Elbow Room Theatre, director Marcel Downey, has crafted a visual and colourful palette of characters reflecting on the hidden world of Aged Care - examined with dramatic humour. It explores the core themes of modern society bound by class and race.

Award-winning writer Vidya Rajan, whilst working in Health pre-Covid,  was required to follow up complaints in privatised residential aged care, compelling her to explore the pressing issues in this sector in a workshop writing exercise that was later developed into her new play.

In the opening scene, we see a bored and frustrated man (Tom Dent) flicking the remote control of the overhead TV in his elderly mother’s (Marta Kaczmarek) room in the nursing home where she resides, while his wife (Emily Tomlins) gently grooms her. They all connect on family matters related to property and finance. The overworked support care worker (Rachel Kamath) enters, politely requesting they step outside during the mother’s bathing time. An opaque partition divides the audience from the two characters; we hear them talk and see fuzzy actions of undressing and bathing. A bonding between the motherly frail resident and the whingeing oppressed care worker is clear – a looming menace hovers - pronounced by the eerie sound composition (Saieesh Shanmurgarajah).

The play then jumps ahead in time. We see the support worker, tired from a hard day, calling her friend (Shamita Siva) who boasts of good times on the Gold Coast while berating Kamath’s poor lifestyle. Kamath is anxious and deeply concerned about a hearing requested by family members about the sudden death of the elderly woman. The division is strikingly obvious between these two friends, and while Kamath’s character feels depleted of life and energy from overwork, she finds it hard to communicate and maintain friendships because of her burdening work commitments and lack of free time and money.

Seamless minimal set alterations provide a shift in place and time and nourish new characters in the overall narrative.  Intrigue and bourgeois scheming by the wealthy doctor (Shamita Siva) and her husband (Tom Dent) is clever; she is nervous about the hearing concerning the death of the elderly lady, but reflects discontent in her marriage.

The ending is unpredictable, haunting, and surreal; whilst poking fun at the Aged Care sector and the inane privileges of the wealthy (spoiler alerts). Sometimes it pays to just let your hair down and party and “live your life to the fullest”.

Crocodiles is entertaining and thought-provoking theatre, directed with nuanced finesse, facilitating fine performances by all the actors, and smooth uninterrupted production values by the crew.

Flora Georgiou

Photographer: Cameron Grant