The Disappearance

The stage was set with sheets suspended from the ceiling, an allegory for the notion of hanging someone out to dry.
In this case the person being treated unfairly or exposed to the elements is Roger Baxter, a 15-year-old boy who suffers from a speech impediment and emotional issues. 

The production had a reading at the New Theatre and has been transferred to an elegant and ambitious production on the wide stage of the Chippen Street Theatre.

As Carol Wimmer explained after the first reading of the play in May. 

“The Disappearance is a ‘double adaptation’! It is based on the book The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear by Kin Platt in 1968 and Baxter, the 1973 screenplay of the book written by Reginald Rose. Director Les Solomon first directed the play in 1976 at the Wayside Chapel and for a youth theatre production in 1991.

"When he found and read an old copy of the play recently, he realised that the theme resounded even more clearly today than perhaps it did forty years ago when mental health issues were not so readily discussed or diagnosed, especially in relation to young people.

"The Disappearance is about Roger Baxter, a teenager suffering from a speech disorder and emotional issues following the divorce of his callous parents and his mother’s decision to relocate to a different city. Despite being befriended by some understanding tenants, his mother’s continuing insensitivity and neglect cause Roger to ‘disappear’ into a schizophrenic withdrawal that requires hospitalisation.

"In this adaptation Solomon moves Roger and his mother from America to an apartment in Sydney – so the relocation is even more disorientating and his ‘alone-ness’ more distressing.”

The role of Roger Baxter is portrayed with sensitivity and humour by Gordon Vignelles. There is a gentleness in his performance which is endearing.
The other 12 characters in the play - his parents, doctor and new friends in Sydney - are less fully realised in the text, but well realised by the large ensemble. 

The play is one act and lasts almost two hours. I think it might have benefited from being in two acts and further development of the script. 
On the positive side the stage design from James Burchett, lighting design from Mehran Mortezaei and original music composed by Liam Faulkner Dimond nicely supported the production. 

The Disappearance has potential as a literary play to engage High School students both as a performance piece and to study because of the many relevant contemporary themes.

David Spicer

Photographer: Geoff Sirmai