Patrick White wrote ‘The Season at Sarsparilla’ in 1961 at the end of the Menzies era. The play brilliantly magnifies the seemingly trivial routines of three families- the Boyles, the Pogsons and the Knotts, in their neighbouring homes in Mildred Street in the fictional suburb of Sarsparilla. The dream of a quarter acre block and mortgage are a nightmare for its repressed and fragile residents. The dramatic action takes place under a blazing summer sky whilst a howling bitch on heat elevates the feverish desires of Sarsparilla’s inhabitants.
Benedict Andrews’s production of this White play at the Drama Theatre, the Sydney Opera House was a great piece of theatre. This was a brilliant concept production with the director giving White’s classic play a Big Brother angle. Andrews places numerous video cameras through the expansive terra cotta tiled suburban house which intimately records the action on two large screens positioned at either side of the stage.
The performances by the Sydney Actors Company in their fourth production together were inspired….each actor nailed their character. My favourite performances… Peter Carroll as Mildred Street’s gossip and drama queen. Eden Falk was terrific as the cynical, cerebral young man Roy Child who is the play’s narrator/observer. One just senses that inevitably he will outgrow Mildred Street and move on with his life. Pamela Rabe as the troubled, feisty Nola Boyle. Rabe has some of the play’s strongest dramatic moments, revealing her frustration at life in ‘struggle street’, and delivers them forcefully.
Amber McMahon was strong as the spritely, impulsive Pippy Pogson, as was Hayley McElhinney as her older, much more grounded/earthy sister, Judy. Alan John was terrific in two roles, as the ditzy young fat girl, Deidree, and a haunting portrayal of the bland, spineless public servant Mr Erbage. Brandon Burke was strong as the dour, no nonsense sanitary worker, Ernie Boyle.
Colin Moody was excellent as Digger Masson, portraying an imposing, aggressive masculinity that spells trouble for Nola Boyle. For the other extreme, there was Helen Thomson’s evocative portrayal of local glamour woman Julia Sheen with her brittle, fragile femininity.
Production values were uniformally strong. Andrews was aided by Robert Cousins’s brilliant set design. His imposing suburban house, set on a large revolve, worked so effectively. Alan John’s haunting score , Nick Schlieper’s sharp lighting design, and Alice Babidge’s quirky costumes, all were strong.
When Roy Child makes his final observations on Mildred Street, as the house twirls around the stage for the final time, and makes the telling omment, ‘one can’t break out of one’s own skin, even though it itches like hell’, one knows that one has just experienced one very special night in the theatre.
3 April, 2007