A half lit, twilight world of smoke, seagull squawk, dried leaves and garbage bags, the audience is bidden to a modern day midden by set designer Kat Chan. This is the habitat of Christie, a woman top of the heap in the garbage tip of human refuse.
Destitute, disenfranchised, derelict, Christie is made “feel like a criminal” because of her poverty and homelessness. Vulnerable and vilified, she is a victim, somewhat of her own making, but ignominiously ignored by the system and the community at large.
For most, the word ‘mother’ conjures comfort and affection, but in Daniel Keene’s play, MOTHER, the character, Christie, conjures discomfit and affliction.
Christie is a drunk, a lost soul wandering a purgatory of her own making, made living hell by a society swift to judge, ready to ignore and quick to condemn.
Keen softens us up opening with a soliloquy of droll humour with Christie reminiscing about her settled married life with Lenny, her pregnancy and resulting motherhood, and the naming of the child.
Then he charts the choppy waters of post-natal depression and a dependency on the bottle – hers, not the infant. A sorrowful case of the baby blooze. Interspersed with reminiscence both tender and tough, bitter and sweet, the profane, poetic prose relentlessly powers towards the telegraphed yet still shattering revelation. A dreadful denoument.
Written by Keene specifically for Noni Hazlehurst, this muscular monologue is given flesh, blood, bone and sinew by the performer, personifying the pain, wit and sorrow on the page, and bringing it keenly to the stage.
Production values are first class with the afore mentioned stage-scape a dazzling simplicity before which events of extreme complexity are to unfold and a costume worn and dignified by use created by Kat Chan, evocative lighting design by Tom Willis and subtle sound design by Darius Kedros.
Superbly directed by Matt Scholten, who instigated the marriage of the writer and the performer, Sydney audiences have the benefit of a production that has been honed to a sharp edge by months of touring all along the Eastern seaboard.
Not to be missed.
MOTHER continues at Belvoir Street Theatre until 11th February.
Running Time: Approx 70 mins, no interval