Scarecrow *****

‘Scarecrow’ a creepy mysterious play by Don Nigro, is having its WA debut at the Blue Room Studio. The performances are Tuesday – Thursday evening at 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm on Friday and Saturday.

The action takes place in an old run-down farmhouse where a young naïve girl (Adrianne Daff) exists with her prematurely ‘old’ mother (Talei Howell-Price). This agoraphobic and neurotic bitch of a mother has controlled her daughter for years but now the teenager is fighting back.

One day, whilst walking through the cornfields around the house, she meets a very pleasant boy (Scott Jackson) and at last she has a little happiness in her miserable life – but will the mother find out about the affair and are the boy’s intentions honourable?

There are lots of twists in this creepy and disturbing tale, with a credible storyline.

The homestead set and outdoor scenery by John Pepper is most inventive. There is a raked stage to help view the action that takes place on the floor. A sinister rear wall to the room and symbolic corn canes. The lighting (Lucy Birkinshaw) is very well planned with every aspect of the positioning and colour having been considered.

Tara Webb’s excellent music starts off simply, with an occasional piano or cello note and develops through to a crescendo with the climax in the play. I thought a little too loud to hear the actors – but this is a minor whinge.

A great deal of praise must go to the director Zoë Pepper (recently in the successful Blue Room presentation, ‘Fallen Petals’) for her control at critical parts of the play. Underplaying the characters’ parts was essential and worked beautifully. The movement was well choreographed and in places almost ballet like.

This was one of the best all-round drama productions that I have seen at the Blue Room for a while. Try and see this, but be warned it was a full house on the first night and I suspect will be for the season. Brilliant.