The Feather in the Web

Kimberley (Claire Lovering) is a fiery, passionate soul who does what she wants whenever she feels like it, with hilarious consequences. She leaves emotional, and more tangible, destruction in her wake as she storms through her world. Well meaning interventions by friends, policemen, and even court ordered visits to the psychologist are no match for Kimberley: her impulsiveness and shrewd insights into the inner lives of those who would try to curb her excesses are enough to defeat them all. But will she be able to conquer love with her incisive wit?

Nick Coyle’s The Feather in the Web, a Lysicrates Prize finalist, is an absurdist, almost black comedy which reminded me of the BBC’s The League of Gentlemen. Coyle takes the characters and action to the very edge of credulity, at times almost abandoning naturalism, which he balances with truly heartfelt and touching moments. All this combines to elevate his writing to a plane that is both emotionally confusing and deeply rewarding, executed in a style that is truly his own. Behind it all you can feel his prodigious theatrical intelligence at work. This is a playwright fiercely investigating the breadth of the human condition, demanding answers to life’s riddles. Ben Winspear (Director) writes that ‘it is impossible to contain on stage … the full scope of Nick’s imagination.’

Coyle reveals a little of his writing craft when he writes in the program that without the introduction of an antagonist, in this case love, the play would simply be a series of ‘psychopathic vignettes’. At the core of this work is a meditation on love, and its ability to confound, to overwhelm. Nick writes of ‘epic, magic, brutal, bloodless Love’ which has the power to ‘lift you up’ but ‘doesn’t care if it leaves you dead in a ditch.’

The performances are all excellently judged, both hysterically funny and deeply moving, right on the knife edge between comedy and tragedy. Lovering delivers a tour de force performance as Kimberley, displaying masterful timing in comic situations and a profound access to emotion in more reflective ones.

The costuming (Sophie Fletcher and Ella Butler) is subtle and functional where it needs to be to convey the wide number of characters each actor plays; and then immensely playful and funny at other moments, such as when the embodiment (Tina Bursill) of a migraine’s visual disturbance charges onto the stage in anthropomorphized form. The lighting states (Trent Suidgeest) are used to great effect, and hilariously capture states such as love at first sight and heighten our experience of Kimberley’s internal struggle. Winspear has done a wonderful job of realising Coyle’s explosive imagination on stage.  

Lee Lewis (Artistic Director Griffin Theatre Company) personally welcomed the audience and thanked us for participating in the creation of new Australian work. I believe gratitude needs to flow in the other direction for the production of another wonderful new Australian play. If you are already an admirer of Nick Coyle you will not want to miss this addition to his body of work, and if you are yet to discover his imagination, give yourself this treat! 

Oliver Wakelin

Photographer: Brett Boardman