CUT AND PASTE

Carla Moore’s poignant new Australian drama Cut and Paste pivots around chronically ill 13 year old schoolboy Thomas (Cam McCallum), who will soon lose his battle against kidney failure without a healthy donor organ.

We meet his caring family as they share his struggle; mum Rachel (Joy Sweeney), feisty older sister, Nina (Abby Earl) and Holocaust survivor grandmother Basia (Mary Milton). As the search continues for a kidney, a parallel story takes us into the world of Craig (Scott Kimpton) and Angela (Emily Talbot), a young Blacktown couple preparing to get married.

The playwright tells a moving story, using good stagecraft. The warm, emotive style worked well. The characters, on the whole, were well drawn. Through the character of Rachel she espoused one of the play’s main themes, the disappointment that many baby boomers felt at seeing their big hopes and dreams of making a better society fade away as they dealt with life’s practicalities. She mixed up the serious drama up with some great one-liners.

Moore successfully directed her own work, winning committed performances from her cast. My picks were Joy Sweeney as hard working mother Rachel, Cam McCallum as Thomas and Abby Earl as Nina.

The set, also Moore’s work, worked well with the action taking place in three areas; the family’s living room. Craig and Angela’s flat, and Thomas’s hospital room, each space evoked with clever theatrical shorthand.

Cut and Paste felt like it could have been helped by a bit of a trim, nevertheless it’s a fine work by a talented playwright.

Cut and Paste is playing at the Chester Street Theatre. Corner Chester and Oxford Street, Epping until the 2nd August. Bookings: 9876 6322 or www.chestersttheatre.com