The Turquoise Elephant

The absurdism of Stephen Carleton’s new play about climate change, his florid characters and mad arguments, so obviously springs from his exasperation at the mindlessness of how this is debated in the real world. Or what’s left of it.

In a future Sydney, as the mercury reaches 48 degrees and with Harbour waters rising, we meet the privileged inhabitants of a triple-glazed mansion.  

Right wing matriarch Augusta Macquarie dominates government as a ferocious old climate change denier.  By contrast, her wacky daughter Aunt Olympia is now a compulsive disaster tourist hunting down the world’s last glacier or the flooding of famous landmarks  – she’s swathed in a superb clutter of national costumes.   A crazed environmentalist turned connoisseur, Olympia believes that eating endangered species will create more demand for them. These two highly original characters are hilariously realised by, respectively, Maggie Dence and Belinda Giblin (with costumes by Emma Vine).

After them, Augusta’s granddaughter Basra (Olivia Rose) is a plainer character, more an everywoman of us all: writing a blog about climate change but hasn’t yet taken to the streets.

From outside, via a screen into Brian Thomson’s sophisticated mansion space, a masked activist spits violent rebellion but also some compelling environmental logic.  Cabaret star iOTA is here wonderfully burlesque on screen.  

A smarmy American entrepreneur (Julian Garner) also arrives, with dreams of developing new green real estate under domes, and a mysterious new maid Visi also slips in (Catherine Davies). These two characters are more clichéd, with moments sometimes heavy-handed in the writing, but they drive on the plot to more absurdity.

With her credits directing big shows and musicals, Gale Edwards delivers a big canvas production on Griffin’s tiny stage, and Carleton’s script is frequently wild and wicked in its wit.  It’s all a delight in Commedia dell’arte style clowning.  And it ends with a powerfully moving challenge for us all – to be an activist or, watching the waters rise, to remain an observer.

Martin Portus