Diving for Pearls

With our technology revolution and global anxieties its easy to think no other generation faced worries as big as ours. 

Kath Thomson’s play takes us back to 1991, to those stranded in a coastal industrial city as manufacturing is closed down, and recession and economic rationalism rolls in.  This classic play is in fact crisply contemporary, very back to the future.

Thomson sharply details this revolution in our manufacturing but her focus is on the heartfelt battle of those who are left behind, their defiant humour, false hopes and bitter disappointment.

Barbara is a rough diamond trying to polish herself up for a job at one of those smart new tourist resorts; and she’s hooked back up with the shy steelworker Den, a loyal bloke to her and his workmates.

Ursula Yovich is passionately outspoken, heart-rendering, as Barbara while Steve Rodgers excels as the scruffy, kind Den.

Jack Finisterer is true as Den’s brother-in-law, a reform consultant at the steelworks, ebullient at first, then crafty and shameful.  Michelle Doake is wickedly funny as Barbara’s affected if Christian sister.  And Ebony Vagulans is outstanding as Barbara’s palsy-affected, puppy dog daughter whose return to her Mum opens old wounds.

This is gripping theatre, rich with tears and humour, but against a powerful canvas of social issues.

Director Darren Yap is blessed with his cast and keeps the action tight; even if detail is lost in the emotional climaxes.  Max Lambert and Roger Lock create an evocative, at times thrilling, soundscape while James Browne has crafted an industrial set of pipes, found objects and work lights. A wall efficiently cranks down to form the slope of the hill, the place of retreat, overlooking this fast changing industrial city.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Brett Boardman