Lucy Miller plays the
lead Kelly in Melita Rowston's CRUSHED. Pic Ian Barry
Spared
from extinction, of being snuffed out after a solo season, The Spare Room, one
of the great innovations of Sydney’s independent theatre scene, rewards its
reprieve with the staging of CRUSHED.
At the beginning of the play, the
audience is plunged, albeit briefly, into sudden darkness. In the following 80
minutes, we venture into some very dark places, thankfully brought to light with
a blow torch wit and bravura.
We meet Kelly, recently returned from
Prague where she is a dealer in bric-a-brac. She is back in born and bred
Postcode 2477 because evidence of a two decade old murder has been unearthed.
The victim was her bestie, Sunny Girl Susie, a sweet sixteen, missing believed
slaughtered.
Kelly, once known as Jelly Kelly, has slimmed down and
adopted a semblance of European sophistication. She is reunited with two blokes
who knew Susie, and because they all knew her, they are implicated in her
disappearance. Guilt by association!
Suspicion sticks like shit on an
eggshell and impacts on this trio whose shared experience of Susie binds them in
a web of secrets, deceits and desires.
Dazza has a distrust of DNA
evidence, a mistrust born of the shambles of the Chamberlain case among other
miscarriages of justice littering the local legal landscape. The discovery of
Susie’s t-shirt drives Dazza dizzy with connotations of Azaria’s matinee jacket
and the finger of flawed forensics pointing to his complicity in Susie’s
disappearance.
Jason is now a lecturer in paleontology at the local
university. His profession is quite ironic now that his own buried past is being
dug up and examined, an archaeology of heart ache, an unfulfilled future
relegated to the reliquary of his present.
Melita Rowston’s script
shows a rich facility of language, clearly defined character creation and
narrative arc. Her exploration of the lost child scenario – the stolen, the
taken, the abducted, the disappeared– is as well executed as the best in our
dramatic dreaming.
An assured grasp of comic irony fuels the play which
blasts along with ballistic pace and precision, targeting the tragedy with a
trajectory of jocularity that is robust and ribald.
This production,
deftly directed by Lucinda Gleeson, is powered by high octane performances by
Lucy Miller, Sean Barker and Jeremy Waters.
Miller is marvellous as
Kelly, a kinetic energiser confronting cultural cringe, emotional closure and a
life changing decision. Barker bull terriers his way through Dazza, a dazzling
display of the dichotomy of openness and simmering volatility, playful as a
puppy, dangerous as a rabid.
Water’s laid back academic belies the
below-the-surface sense of guilt and shame that has shadowed him since Susie’s
disappearance.
Eliza McLean’s simple set of transparent screens serves
as stylistic metaphor for the thinly veiled veneer of ‘everything is fine’ and
allows for smooth scene changes.
A bold and emphatic production of a
very polished play, CRUSHED is a provocative and poignant entertainment that
sets the bar high for The Spare Room’s second season. Kudos to Chester
Productions and New Theatre.
Lucinda Gleeson’s production of Melita
Rowston's CRUSHED opened at the New Theatre, 542 King Street, Newtown on Friday
18th May and runs until Saturday 9th June, 2012.
© Richard Cotter 20th
May, 2012 | 
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