The Savages of Wirramai

The people at La Mama Courthouse seem committed to presenting quality work - I've yet to see a bad production here. The Savages of Wirramai, which opened last night, is a new Australian play by Sandy Fairthorne which portrays the dysfunctional Savage family gathering together to celebrate the parents’ wedding anniversary on the eve of Anzac Day. Both events are cause for concern as the family patriarch (David Macrae) is not only a tyrant feared by his wife and three daughters but also a Vietnam veteran full of anger and resentment at how long it took for him to be recognised to participate in the annual march. It's a well-written, thought-provoking play which presents a vividly compelling portrait of the family dynamics as tragedy moves inevitably closer and a dark secret (the type everyone knows about but nobody talks about) is dragged out into the open.

Given the challenging subject matter, a strong cast is essential to make this work and two of the actors were particular standouts. Cherie Mills as Angela, whom the audience's sympathies stay with throughout, was the ideal choice for her role - always emotionally honest, her quiet stoicism and fighting against tears was extremely moving. As her troubled sister Cassie, Kirsty Snowden was equally impressive, creating an utterly believable portrait of a drug user on a self-destructive path.

In the pivotal (and thoroughly unsympathetic) role of the father was David Macrae, who didn't quite seem to exude the physical presence one might expect of a man accustomed to lording it over everyone around him. While this might have been a deliberate choice to illustrate the fact that he's in decline (and this was alluded to in the opening scene), it was somewhat inconsistently presented, as was his use of and need for a walking stick.

While the performance was well-paced, some of the blocking was awkward throughout. In the climactic confrontation scene between Angela and her father, there was a particularly odd moment when Angela crossed directly behind her father - it seemed unnecessary, and one would have thought that given the emotional tension between the two at that moment, she would have wanted to keep her physical distance. These issues may have been due to the tightness of the performance space and will perhaps be addressed during the run as the show is finetuned. But given it was opening night, it was overall a strong start for a production which is well worth seeing.

Alex Paige