The Distance

Some strong and witty performances and excellent production values make this an interesting offering from MTC; it’s just a pity that Deborah Bruce’s play is ultimately a disappointment.

The thematic premises…and there are several at work… are interesting in themselves. Is the much lauded “maternal instinct” a myth? What happens when you cannot, even though you’ve tried, accept motherhood and yet you’re a good person in all other respects? What is the responsibility of friends to each other? Why are men more accepting and less judgemental than woman? These are questions worth exploring with honesty and at least providing some possible explanations, but the play avoids these in favour of (often cheap) laughs.

Bea (Susan Prior) abandons her children in Australia because she simply isn’t equipped for motherhood. She returns home expecting the love and support of her Besties only to find herself judged and pushed towards returning to a life she doesn’t want. Kate (Nadine Garner) is a neurotic control freak who is clearly terrified of losing what she has and has spent eight years on IVF to produce a baby daughter. Alex (Katrina Milosevic) is a lush looking for the next man though she already has three kids from different fathers. Both refuse to believe their best friend has left her kids. Surely she must be having a nervous breakdown.

There’s an uneasy feeling in me that there is deep subtext in this play which isn’t being played, and so I am unsure if the failure is the writer’s or the director’s. One thing is certain though, as played at the Sumner, these three characters seem like stereotypes created for the purpose of the text. There isn’t any sense that these three women – even if the years have changed them - would, or could, have ever been best friends. There is no hook, no cement or glue which is necessary in every friendship, so one is left asking how, where, why did these three become friends. In short, there is no common ground other than the writer’s will.

The obvious conclusion about Bea is that she is having a nervous breakdown – that’s how the text is played… and yet there are hints that Bea is actually having a painful epiphany and has the strength to act on it. Kate, on the other hand, is falling apart, but barely recognises it, and Alex has long since given up any pretence of having her life together….exploration of that hypothesis would have been more interesting.

When you don’t actually believe the characters, it’s hard to connect and involve yourself in the issues. Fortunately there are strong performances throughout.

Nadine Garner as Kate nails her “elocution lessons” Brit accent – I know middle class Brit women who pay a fortune to learn to talk that way, just in case they marry a Prince …or a Rock Star. Her brittleness and neurotic outpourings are beautifully focussed. Yet there are clues that she only had the baby to hang onto fading Rock Star Dewi (Ben Prendergast) and she relegates most care of the baby to him (there’s that subtext again). It’s a fine performance of a thoroughly unlikeable character, rather than a woman whose fears we understand. Katrina Milosevic plays Alex as a good natured Lush and gets plenty of laughs, partly because she looks and sounds so much like Dawn French. It would have helped the character if the likeness wasn’t quite so startling. It’s a strong performance and again the clues of subtext are there but not really played. Still, the actress makes the character an endearing loser, someone whom, in truth…or ‘real life’ Kate wouldn’t waste the time of day on.

Susan Prior is a fine actress with some nice moments, but Bea is largely a character without truth, a trope to enable the other two women to argue. There are mentions of her being an artist, yet nothing about her suggests art. What is played for the most part is selfishness – she can’t wait to get out and go clubbing – and yet her revealing speech near the end of the play suggests that isn’t true….that this is a selfLESS act.

So where does the fault lie? Writer or Director?

The men fare better. Kate’s husband Dewi, a rock star looking to revive his career, appears hen-pecked and beaten, yet proves to be a rock, focussed and centred and accepting of people as they are. It’s another beautifully measured performance by Ben Prendergast, who does so much by being STILL. It’s just a pity that, with three guitars on stage as props, the Director never utilised them. Prendergast is a gifted musician and singer and it might have added a layer of authenticity to his back story.

Nathan Page makes Bad Boy heart-of-gold Vinnie – Dewi’s talentless brother – a real three dimensional character and nails the difficult Welsh accent. He is stunning in the scene (which is mainly exposition) when he reveals how Dewi had a child out of wedlock and was forced to abandon her. Martin Blum has the thankless task of trying to breathe life into the two dimensional paper thin character of Simon…Bea’s husband.

But the real breakout performance comes from Joe Clocek as Liam, Alex’s 15 year old son; shy, uncertain and looking for reasons to rebel, his scene with Bea on how to survive is an absolute gem. Watch for him in future productions.

Tracy Grant Lord’s set is stunning and monochromatic, and Lisa Mibus’s lighting design works a treat; but ultimately the play is overloaded with ideas – none of which is fully explored.

Coral Drouyn

Photographer: Jeff Busby.