The Ghost Writer ****

The Melbourne Theatre Company’s production ‘The Ghost Writer’ by Ross Meuller is now showing at the Melbourne Arts Centre until mid April.

Brihanna (Margaret Harvey) is the broken hearted mother of a murdered 4 yr old daughter. She wishes to tell the full story behind her daughter’s death, so the public would at last know the truth of her death, not just the modified version issued by the police and authorities. She approaches a well known Melbourne publisher (John Wood) and asks him to have someone ghost write the story, as she is illiterate.

The publisher recommends his daughter Claudio as the ghost-writer (Belinda McClory), as he is more interested in getting the whole thing in print in six weeks, rather than letting the truth be fully told slowly and accurately.

Claudio is in a relationship with business-suited Simon West (Raj Sidhu) but decides to call it off and concentrate on the tragic story that unfolds.

All of the acting in this play was sensitive, and at times heart-rending. Margaret Harvey was amazing as she whispered her tale one minute and was wildly abusive the next.
There were several little twists and red herrings, small subplots worked well with the whole story being praised by author David Williamson, as wonderful and a play he wished that he had written himself. Even so as a member of the audience there were periods where the link between the main characters wasn’t quite strong enough, with all of the sensitivity and focus being on the dead child, Meagan.

The set was simple and neutral and the lighting straight forward, both effective. On occasions, one part of the story would be playing in parallel to a scene elsewhere, often even in the same stage area.

This was a play that made one think of many similar murdered or lost children over the past few years.

A novel story well presented by director Julian Meyrick.