Kit Brookman has written a clever and entertaining play that is performed well by the young actors in the cast. Through the use of simple and minimal props a sense of intimacy is created with the characters who share a cathartic experience with their audience.
Angela Farnsworth, played by Geraldine Hakewill is a high school student, who has been run over by a baker’s van. The response to this tragic event is seen from the perspective of three classmates whose relationship with Angela was marked by friendship, ambivalence and hostility. Her classmates use a spiritualism book to make contact with Angela, both to assuage their guilt for how they treated her when she was alive and as a means to discover what the afterlife is like.
Much of the interest in this play centres on the relationships between the four characters. Elements of conflict, power plays, affection, lust, self-interest and duplicity are all conveyed and examined through Brookman’s rich dialogue.The bravado, insecurity, posturing and language of 16 year olds is well captured. Considering what a diverse & constantly changing demographic teenagers cover, it is a well met challenge to realistically portray these aspects.
Typical teenage personalities are well portrayed with subtlety, robustness and sensitivity. Stewart (Akos Armant) is a sportsman, a vandal and a bully. Armant portrays him as being full of bravado but also troubled by an array of insecurities.
Max is an intellectual, poor at sport and troubled by a guilty conscience. Thomas Conroy admirably performs this major role.
Sally (Julia Billington) like Max is an outsider. She is seen by others at school, including by Stewart, as a goth or an emo and as a threat. Sally rarely attends school and when she does, she only attends French, History and English classes. Billington portrays her as maturely confident about her place in the world but also yearning for friendship and understanding from her peers.
When Angela is brought back from the dead she rapidly loses the qualities and experiences that make people feel alive. While Angela’s ability to experience sensations, emotions and recall memories is waning, in other ways she has becomes much more alive. Angela’s response to her surroundings is more intense and full of wonder than her class mates, and she has a greater sense of agency (philisophically) and with this empowerment.
Initially, Geraldine Hakewill plays her with the detachedness, aloofness and naiveté, one could expect from the recently dead, but having the knowledge that her embodied experience will never again be the same, she carries out an act of retribution from a place of deep inner strength.
Through a clever script and admirable acting both the experience of being a teenager and the metaphysical possibilities of being a human (both alive and dead) are explored.
This current production played at the Old 505 Theatre, Surry Hills, an interesting space located on the 5th floor of an indistinct building which you enter through a non-descript door. You may need to buzz to enter. Once inside this building you enter a world of enthusiasm and possibilities. Walls are adorned with artwork and the stairs leading to the theatre display an intriguing collection of Polaroid snapshots. The old 505 Theatre itself is a small and intimate space with very friendly and welcoming staff.
I enjoyed and recommend HEAVEN. Kit Brookman’s HEAVEN opened a the Old 505 Theatre, Surry Hills, 505/342 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills on Wednesday 16th November and runs until Sunday 27th November, 2011. For more information please check the website- http://www.venue505.com. HEAVEN is playing as part of the current NovemberISM Writer’s Festival.
© Mark Pigott
20th November, 2011
Tags: Kit Brookman, HEAVEN, Writer’s Festival, NovemberISM Festival, Old 505 Theatre, Geraldine Hakewill, Julia Billington, Thomas Conroy, Akos Armant.