The Sugar Mother
Sat, 3 Sept 2011, 10:06 amGordon the Optom2 posts in thread
The Sugar Mother
Sat, 3 Sept 2011, 10:06 am‘The Sugar Mother’ is an authorised, skilful blend and adaptation by John Senczuk of Elizabeth Jolley’s short story ‘Woman in a Lampshade’ and her novel ‘The Sugar Mother’. Admired by Elizabeth, this version has its WA Premiere at the Metcalfe Playhouse, an independent theatre within the Empyrean Centre, 12 Lake Street, Northbridge. The season runs nightly at 7.30pm until Saturday 17th with matinees on Saturday at 2.00pm and Sunday at 3.00pm until the 18th.
Almost all of WA’s successful playwrights, and many of the established actors, have been taught by WA’s great literary icon, Elizabeth Jolley. This slight lady, in the Rupert the Bear scarf, looked like a soft touch – how wrong can one be? She was a stickler for quality, demanding of promptness and attention. Elizabeth was a traditional, quality lecturer who brought fear to the students and yet, without exception, was loved, respected and admired by all of her pupils.
Despite her humble English background, Elizabeth received many honorary doctorates and civic awards, including the WA Citizen of the Year Award, the Order of Australia for Services to the Arts, and was even named a Living National Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1997.
A middle aged University Professor, Edwin Page (Ian Toyne) simply continues writing at his desk, when his wife, Cecilia (Christie Sistrunk) announces that she is leaving to live at their country holiday home for several months. Having lost three babies of her own, especially being a gynaecologist and seeing so many mothers and babies at work, life is getting her down. She will take her mind off things by carrying out a lifelong ambition and writing an adventure book.
As Cecilia leaves, a nosey old biddy, Mrs Bott (Val Riches) and her shy young, teenage daughter, Leila (Sophie Kesteven) from the rental next door, notices that she has a suitcase in her hand. Filled with curiosity they hatch a plan to wheedle their way into Edwin’s home, initially to see how he lives, and possibly even to move in.
When Daphne, the horsey daughter of a late family friend (Anna Brockway) calls in to see her ‘Uncle Teddy’ this inexperienced schoolmarm, filled with frustration and now quite alone in the world, sees her chance to learn what ‘life’ is all about.
On her way to the cottage, Cecilia is travelling through driving rain, and sees a young man (David McLeod) pathetically thumbing at the side of the road. She stops to give him a lift ….
Although this story is a couple of decades old, it could still happen again tomorrow. Elizabeth has woven three or four very different and fascinating storylines together. She has brilliantly structured them to run in parallel, with even the dialogue and themes appearing to match.
The intercutting between the scenes runs on an analogous time scale, with each brief vista ranging from as short as a few seconds, to some scenes being a few minutes. This constant chopping and changing would normally be annoying but because of the clever script structure it rarely jarred.
The designer, John Senczuk, had several fixed locations around the stage, which the characters from very different scenes at times intermingled. Again the flow and the pace worked well with no confusion to the audience. With numerous entrances and exits the director had to ensure the cast had sharp and flawless timing. This style of acting and structure may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but helped blend the threads and emphasise the clashes in personality, the problems of stale love and the excitement of fresh intimacy.
Sacha Maboub’s costume design was excellent, with not only the dress of the day (1990s) but perfect for the characters being depicted. The sound effects (Jordan Gibbs) worked well, especially on the storm scene. The lighting design however, with so many short scenes was complex, the cues demanding and with immense precision required. Sadly I felt that a fair bit more was required, such as on lowering lighting levels of scenes that were held in limbo, lamp and barn doors alignment and concentration on cues. As I said this was a very complicated set up and perhaps a little too much for a student to handle alone. Having said that, I must give praise to the director for giving a chance to several new and ‘raw’ talents in each production. Sophie Kesteven is still a first year theatre student, but handled her part as the downtrodden youngster with confidence. Val Riches has been recognised many times for her theatre skills in Community Theatre; here she was delightful as the interfering and manipulating mother. Anna Brockway gave a touching performance as the fawning, jealous and insecure neighbour. Ian Toyne and Christie Sistrunk, as always, were wonderful as the couple exploring new ground.
This is an unusual type of production, however it is cleverly presented by both the ingenious script, which was very dark and yet filled with extraordinary wit. The well directed, generally strong cast brought alive Elizabeth’s rich characters. Strongly recommended to all students of English and theatre, there is a huge amount to be learnt from this unusual play.
‘The Sugar Mother’ is an authorised, skilful blend and adaptation by John Senczuk of Elizabeth Jolley’s short story ‘Woman in a Lampshade’ and her novel ‘The Sugar Mother’. Admired by Elizabeth, this version has its WA Premiere at the Metcalfe Playhouse, an independent theatre within the Empyrean Centre, 12 Lake Street, Northbridge. The season runs nightly at 7.30pm until Saturday 17th with matinees on Saturday at 2.00pm and Sunday at 3.00pm until the 18th.
Almost all of WA’s successful playwrights, and many of the established actors, have been taught by WA’s great literary icon, Elizabeth Jolley. This slight lady, in the Rupert the Bear scarf, looked like a soft touch – how wrong can one be? She was a stickler for quality, demanding of promptness and attention. Elizabeth was a traditional, quality lecturer who brought fear to the students and yet, without exception, was loved, respected and admired by all of her pupils.
Despite her humble English background, Elizabeth received many honorary doctorates and civic awards, including the WA Citizen of the Year Award, the Order of Australia for Services to the Arts, and was even named a Living National Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1997.
A middle aged University Professor, Edwin Page (Ian Toyne) simply continues writing at his desk, when his wife, Cecilia (Christie Sistrunk) announces that she is leaving to live at their country holiday home for several months. Having lost three babies of her own, especially being a gynaecologist and seeing so many mothers and babies at work, life is getting her down. She will take her mind off things by carrying out a lifelong ambition and writing an adventure book.
As Cecilia leaves, a nosey old biddy, Mrs Bott (Val Riches) and her shy young, teenage daughter, Leila (Sophie Kesteven) from the rental next door, notices that she has a suitcase in her hand. Filled with curiosity they hatch a plan to wheedle their way into Edwin’s home, initially to see how he lives, and possibly even to move in.
When Daphne, the horsey daughter of a late family friend (Anna Brockway) calls in to see her ‘Uncle Teddy’ this inexperienced schoolmarm, filled with frustration and now quite alone in the world, sees her chance to learn what ‘life’ is all about.
On her way to the cottage, Cecilia is travelling through driving rain, and sees a young man (David McLeod) pathetically thumbing at the side of the road. She stops to give him a lift ….
Although this story is a couple of decades old, it could still happen again tomorrow. Elizabeth has woven three or four very different and fascinating storylines together. She has brilliantly structured them to run in parallel, with even the dialogue and themes appearing to match.
The intercutting between the scenes runs on an analogous time scale, with each brief vista ranging from as short as a few seconds, to some scenes being a few minutes. This constant chopping and changing would normally be annoying but because of the clever script structure it rarely jarred.
The designer, John Senczuk, had several fixed locations around the stage, which the characters from very different scenes at times intermingled. Again the flow and the pace worked well with no confusion to the audience. With numerous entrances and exits the director had to ensure the cast had sharp and flawless timing. This style of acting and structure may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but helped blend the threads and emphasise the clashes in personality, the problems of stale love and the excitement of fresh intimacy.
Sacha Maboub’s costume design was excellent, with not only the dress of the day (1990s) but perfect for the characters being depicted. The sound effects (Jordan Gibbs) worked well, especially on the storm scene. The lighting design however, with so many short scenes was complex, the cues demanding and with immense precision required. Sadly I felt that a fair bit more was required, such as on lowering lighting levels of scenes that were held in limbo, lamp and barn doors alignment and concentration on cues. As I said this was a very complicated set up and perhaps a little too much for a student to handle alone. Having said that, I must give praise to the director for giving a chance to several new and ‘raw’ talents in each production. Sophie Kesteven is still a first year theatre student, but handled her part as the downtrodden youngster with confidence. Val Riches has been recognised many times for her theatre skills in Community Theatre; here she was delightful as the interfering and manipulating mother. Anna Brockway gave a touching performance as the fawning, jealous and insecure neighbour. Ian Toyne and Christie Sistrunk, as always, were wonderful as the couple exploring new ground.
This is an unusual type of production, however it is cleverly presented by both the ingenious script, which was very dark and yet filled with extraordinary wit. The well directed, generally strong cast brought alive Elizabeth’s rich characters. Strongly recommended to all students of English and theatre, there is a huge amount to be learnt from this unusual play.
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