By its very nature, the world of theatre encourages theatremakers to come up with bold, expansive, romantic ideas.

A creative artist working in many different fields, Duncan Maurice has aimed high, with his play, THE SILENCE CAME. Every recent Monday night his team, which includes a cast of 14 actors, have taken over the large heritage house, the Commons in Darlinghurst and put on a show.

The audience gathers pre-show in the Common’s courtyard, usually frequented by diners (The Common is usually a restaurant). At the appropriate time we are ushered in through the front door, and asked to have a look through the house which has three levels to it and features some seven bedrooms. We are each treated as prospective tenants, checking out the accommodation.

We then spend the next hour and a half wandering through this large heritage house as different domestic scenes are played out:- An elegant young woman comes home from work to find her boyfriend in an enigmatic mood. A volatile Spanish couple argue bitterly with each other about how to scrape the rent together. A lesbian couple niggle each other.

As much as the pre-publicity describes the scenes unfolding as ‘theatre you control’, this is hardly the case. There is a clear plot-line developing as tensions exist within the household. The struggle for the housemates to pay the rent is the common theme and it doesn’t help when they have an out and out wacky guy- played to the hilt by Danny Gubbay- who is the manager and rent collector. The stakes dramatically elevate when the proverbial shit hits the fan. The rent collector’s huge stash of money has been stolen, and everyone is suddenly under suspicion. We rush between rooms and up and down staircases as the action draws to a resolution.

The denouement saw the cast given a healthy round of applause by the warm audience, comprising at the most fifteen people. The cast comprised Angela Blake, Aston Campbell, Charles Upton, Christina Sankari, Danny Gubay. Ezequiel Martinez, Giulia Clemente, Lumka Coleman, Mark Olford, Nick Rowe, Paloma Alma, Rose Grayson, Sharon Zeeman and Tess Marshall.

I left the Commons and started the walk up the hill to Oxford street, I could not help but feel a sense of disappointment. I admired the boldness of the experiment and appreciated the commitment of everyone involved. It’s just for such an avant-garde production, the material really needed to be much better. The story and the characters were commonplace and lacked that something special to make the evening work.

THE SILENCE CAME is playing the Commons, 32 Burton Street, Darlinghurst on Monday nights, the 12^th, 19^th and 26^th May at 7.30pm. $20 tickets can be purchased at the door.