Girl Asleep

Matthew Whittet’s Girl Asleep has recently made its mark as a wacky Australian film. The play that it’s based on is now being staged at Sydney’s Belvoir, two years after premiering at the Adelaide Festival. I haven’t seen the film but I trust my young co-critic, who informs me the play is probably better.

The reason? An astonishing creative flair that gives this strange piece an amazing life on stage. In this case, strange is good. Coming of age stories are common enough but they’re not often set in 1970s Adelaide, where the action is almost as absurd in its sober moments as in a long dream. It’s a wonderfully weird world, with Greta’s warped family and friends having remarkable similarities to the ice queens and monsters of her imagination.

This home-grown work feels very Australian but is also a universal tale that could be set anywhere. Greta (Ellen Steele) has just moved to a new school and is terrified of her new classmates. She has enough difficulty meeting one of them, Elliott, so she panics when her parents invite the entire school to her 15^thbirthday party. She comes to terms with this in a long dream.

There are only six actors on stage, most performing a variety of roles. The limits of a small cast unlock a wonderful creativity: with lots of fast changes, parallels drawn between characters, and clever jokes.

The actors are superb. Dylan Young is a standout as Elliott but that’s not to detract from anyone else: it’s a very strong ensemble. Playwright Whittet is hilarious as Greta’s father, Amber McMahon has great comic timing as her prickly mother and Sheridan Harbridge brings heart to a difficult sister.

Director Rosemary Myers keeps the pace frenetic but not too fast. Characters race across the stage, through various doors or ascending and descending stairs. It’s a brilliantly exciting piece but always easy to follow. The design is superb – a suburban house dressed with velvet wallpaper and splotchy carpet, constantly transformed through evocative lighting. Luke Smiles’ sound effects are amazingly affective too.

Like the film, Girl Asleep targets teenagers but this play resonates strongly with adults too. It’s a triumph for Adelaide’s Windmill Theatre and is great to see it delighting wider audiences too.

Peter Gotting

Photographer: Lisa Tomasetti