Extinction

Tiger quolls are in danger of extinction and somebody has to save them. That’s the premise, but there is so much more to this very Australian play.

Set in Cape Otway in Victoria, Extinction explores issues such as should you take money from a coal mining company to fund the protection of a species that they are helping to make extinct? Should you indeed? But money talks and the temptation is too great for fund-starved academia to refuse.

Rayson’s excellent play is full of these dilemmas. The dialogue is realistic and fast paced and the characters are well rounded. As the play develops, personal lives become entangled with ethics until the ‘tiger quoll extinction’ is reduced to a footnote.

All the actors were quality, especially Julia Allman as Dr Piper Ross and Mark Chivers as mining magnate, Harry Jewell. C.J Bowers as veterinarian Andy Dixon and Lisa Jones as academic Heather Dixon –Brown also gave excellent support. Each scene was well acted, with the camping scene the highlight.

The staging, with constant black outs to change the set, was the only hiccup in an otherwise first rate production. 

Ken Cotterill

Image: left to right - Julia Allman (Dr. Piper Ross), Mark Chivers (Harry Jewell) and Lisa Jones  (Professor Heather Dixon-Brown). Photo by Paul Barton.