The End of Winter

Summer may seem to define us in Australia, but Noelle Janaczewska’s new play is a moving, even joyous paean to all things wintry. But it comes with a mournful bite: climate change will make her winter a mere memory.

Jane Phegan is the solo performer; a sort of narrating travel guide and vaguely defined British-born woman who grieves for her mother and loves the cold.  She drives us on to hear about another grief, as glaciers melt, animals retreat, male explorers conquer Antarctica, artificial snow falls in Dubai, carparks turn snow to slosh, and all things cosy and introspective drip away.

This is another of Janaczewska’s performance essays, informed by her feminist and geo-political viewpoints, but here leavened by a tangential humour and sad irony.

If it’s an essay, my companion concluded, he’d rather stay home and read it, but that would have robbed us of Phegan’s engaging, well-measured travels.  And Kate Gaul’s nuanced direction, assisted by the punctuation of Nate Edmondson’s music and Kaitlyn Crocker’s sound.  Soham Apte’s set, with its central large dollhouse sinking into a dark sheen of water, works well.  

Yet still there are further theatrical inventions in music, movement and character which, over the hour, would have added more performance to this essay.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Clare Hawley