There were several people in tears when the lights came up after last night’s performance of TEACUP IN A STORM at The Joan in Penrith. Drawn from the stories of carers in the local area, it’s a short show, only an hour but it certainly hits home to those who live the lives represented on that stage. But it also packs a punch for any audience member who can empathise with or understand loss. A carer misses her husband who is now lost to Alzheimer’s, a mother of an Asperger’s Syndrome child is sad for what might have been, a foster parent with few rights is bereft when the system returns the child she has brought up to the poorly supported birth mother.

Armed with a passion to get the story out and a wealth of interviews of carers from across Western Sydney, plus her own experience, local carer and performer Therese Cook approached Director Nick Atkins. In the program Atkins notes that he wanted audiences to hear the stories as he did, at a small kitchen table over a cup of tea. The devising team expanded to include playwright Noëlle Janaczewska and emerging performer Marie Chanel. The work they have created is truthful and powerful without being confronting or preachy.

The two performers, Cook and Chanel, take on a wide range of roles without any heavy transitions. They inhabit each emotionally different person with a voice and persona which makes them clear to the viewer. The writing also subtly maintains the clarity of who is speaking as we drop back and forth into their lives.

There have been many screen representations of carer stories, big budget and small, but this is theatre and as such requires that delicate balance of intimacy and grandeur. This production has a set and soundtrack which does both. A beautifully laid out home where the endless cleaning and washing and striving for quiet moments can be played out and where the small table and cup of tea are centre stage. And there is an annoying ding each time either of the two artists move spaces. That sound effect has enormous relevance and power when we finally understand it for what it is. I am sure those people who had tears in their eyes recognised it immediately.

By incorporating elements of verbatim and documentary theatre, the TEACUP IN A STORM is a sincere representation which does not gloss over the issues carers face , their internal struggles and encouragingly where they find their strength. However, even with my small personal experience of being a carer for 9 years, there was a distance between me and the text. I was not one of those emotionally moved. My friend, who has no experience of the topic, felt the same. But from our long discussion in the foyer after and the text messages we have sent each other overnight, there is no denying the impact. This is the point of the play. Honestly reflect the carer’s experience so that they have a voice and educate those of us who are distanced from that experience. The production punches above its weight in that regard.

These individual stories echo into real world responses. One character says, “I’m sick to death of fucking Autism”. I’ve thought it. But now that TEACUP IN A STORM has spoken to me, I believe my responses with be more educated and empathetic.

TEACUP IN A STORM played only a brief season at The Joan, playing the 25th to the 27th February. Hopefully it will a have a return season and I encourage you to seek it out.