the DARK ROOM

‘The Dark Room’ was written by Angela Betzien, three times consecutive winner of the Queensland’s Young Playwrights Award. The play also won the inaugural $40,000 Richard Wherrett Prize, Australia's richest playwriting award. It is presented in Perth by the Black Swan State Theatre Company’s ‘The HotBed Ensemble’, at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) in Northbridge, each evening at 8.00 pm until 17^th May. There is no entry to latecomers. The performance is 70 minutes, with no interval.

          In a shabby motel on the outskirts of a Northern Territory town during the intervention, Anni (Jacinta John), a government youth worker arrives accompanied by Grace (Arielle Gray), a confused and unloved fourteen year-old girl. Anni liberated Grace from her ‘safe place’ under the family home in the desert. Grace goads Anni in an attempt to overrule her professional responsibility and invade her personal, fragile façade.
          At the same hotel, after his best friend's wedding, is policeman Stephen (Will O’Mahony) and his pregnant wife, Emma (Natalie Holmwood). Despite being well intoxicated, Stephen wants to go back out with his mates to escape the disillusionment with his job and the desolation of the desert. Alcohol being the obvious therapy.
          Stephen’s colleague, Craig (Tom O’Sullivan), has night at the hotel to forget a catastrophic event which occurred whilst on duty. His peace is interrupted when Joseph (Kazimir Sas), an abused youngster, appears out of the desert and knocks on his room door.

The three stories with very different themes gradually blend together in this riveting production.

The storyline is complex, but thanks to the wonderful direction of Adam Mitchell, even though the three groups of occupants are played simultaneously on the same set, it was an easy-to-follow suspense play.

The drama came to an emotional, disturbing but apparently satisfactory conclusion. However, in the car on the way home, in bed, next day and possibly for weeks to come, one will wonder was there more to that relationship? What was the time scale? Who really did what? So that is why the offstage actors were lit up! There are many layers to this story. A truly amazing bit of writing, which will become a classic.

Angela Betzien was inspired to write the play, after learning of the very large number of children under protection orders who were housed in commercial accommodation. She is quoted as saying, ‘If this were truly the motivation for intervention/invasion then we would send in ‘armies’ of doctors and teachers to assist communities in establishing their own autonomy. Not army personnel. Also ‘justice comes only when the living acknowledge what the dead have suffered’.

Alicia Clements set was prudently drab and neutral, to emphasise the focus on the characters. Trent Suidgeest’s lighting and Ben Collins’ sound designs were creepy, moody, varied and really helped to develop the play’s atmosphere.

With a prize winning script, a director and cast with awards coming out of their ears, I went expecting quality – and yet I was overwhelmed by the result. A VERY strong and capable cast who put their full beings into their parts. However a special mention of Arielle Gray, who portrayed Grace in such a stunning way that every teacher and social worker would believe that she too has suffered. Don’t miss this experience.