The Peach Season

Theatre on Chester is renowned for presenting Australian stories very well and its latest production, The Peach Season by Debra Oswald, is no exception.  The play was short-listed for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, and since its premiere at Griffin Theatre Company has enjoyed success and popularity, particularly on the community theatre circuit.

First time director Jack Linklater showed extraordinary potential as a director with insight and sensitivity to the finer nuances of the characters, their strengths and weaknesses, their fears and foibles.

To summarise the story simply is to recognise a fairly familiar tale. Widowed mother Celia is raising her daughter, Zoe, following the tragic death of her husband, who was an innocent bystander cut down during an armed robbery gone wrong.  Pregnant, alone, determined and courageous, Celia moves to the peach farm she now runs, assisted by an eccentric Hungarian immigrant, Dorothy, who acts as narrator throughout the play.  Dorothy’s son, Joe, a local solicitor, introduces two young people, Sheena and her brother Keiran, to Celia, suggesting they can assist during the busy fruit picking time.  Despite some misgivings as to their suitability, Celia has little choice but to allow them to camp on the property and get picking.

Tracey Okeby Lucan presented a very sincere Celia, a hard-working woman who has created a safe haven for her daughter, Zoe, played with all the confused teenage angst one expects from a sixteen year old girl by Charlize Spillane.

Watching the story unfold, it is very easy to understand Celia’s concerns for her daughter, but Zoe is chafing against Celia's protectiveness. There were several scenes where Lucan and Spillane showed a tremendous bond as mother and daughter; at times tender and loving, sometimes frustration and anger boiling over, particularly once Zoe decides she wants to explore the world with Keiran (Jordan Andrews).  Andrews, as the young man with a bit of a shady past, played the wide-eyed, dim-witted youth to perfection.  His lean frame created a physical awkwardness which only served to strengthen his image throughout the play.  Years of drug abuse and criminal behaviour have left Keiran with a warped view of life.

Someone has to be the adult here, and it’s his half-sister Sheena who, somewhat bitterly, has accepted the responsibility.  Cate Kerrigan as Sheena displays all the pent up rage known only to those who feel trapped within their circumstances. She walks with anger in every step, she speaks with insensitivity, shows no patience or understanding and when the opportunity arises, takes exactly what she wants with no consideration of complications arising.

Joe, played by James Miller-Argue, is a gentle, quiet man struggling in his marriage.  One act of indiscretion finds him homeless and alone.  Miller-Argue drew much sympathy from the audience as a man seeking affection and acceptance, albeit from a misguided choice.

Christine Rule as Dorothy drew on her 30 years’ experience as a stage and screen performer to create an opinionated woman, a witness to all that goes on at the farm and beyond.  Her narration offered light and shade, humour and pathos as she told the tale through her own perspective.  I found her utterly engaging and endearing.

The set, designed by director Linklater, had some lovely touches of rural Australia – the corrugated iron shed, the weatherboard cottage complete with wire screen door.  Lighting, designed by Mike Brew, evoked the vast expanse of an Aussie sky.

There is still ample opportunity to catch this production. Theatre on Chester is located in Epping, in Sydney’s northwest. 

Annette Snars

www.theatreonchester.com.au