They called it ‘The Big One’. A few minutes after midnight on Good Friday, 24 March 1989, an environmental disaster occurred the consequences of which are still felt today. When a massive Exxon tanker spilled its cargo of crude oil off the coast of Valdez, Alaska, the devastation was catastrophic.

Valdez musician and playwright Dick Reichman’s wrote a play about the environmental disaster, and how its affected his home town and country, titled ‘The Big One’. Newtown’s New Theatre is performing Reichman’s play, its first international production, as part of its 2010 New Directions ‘little season of big ideas’ program.

This was a fine piece of documentary dramatic writing, with the big themes, corporate greed and deception, the fallibility of human beings in trying to avert environmental disasters, and the way that personal issues can have wide ranging, devastating repercussions.

‘The Big One’ was well served by Rosane McNamara’s clear, well paced production. McNamara wins good performances from her cast. The pick of the cast were Frank McNamara as the Exxon’s captain, Barry French as a Coastal Guard operator and Kelly Smith-Holbourn as a Valdez waitress with plenty of personality and fortitude.

The production featured good, clear staging with Adam Chantler’s set design dominated by large, flanking icebergs.

Rosane McNamara’s production represented the play’s first international production. Reichman flew up to Sydney to see it, and was well pleased with this fine production. ‘The Big One’ played the New Theatre, 542 King Street, Newtown between the 28th and the 31st of July, 2010.