They ran 'til they stopped

‘They ran ‘til they stopped’ is a contemporary, tragic-comedy written by Gita Bezard for the highly respected Duck House production company. In the Perth Cultural Centre, Gita’s team gathered feedback from 157 passers-by, asking them to write down a unique attribute of their best friend. The accumulated information generated interest in this play.

This wonderful insight into mourning is now being presented by PICA, in conjunction with Performing Lines WA, at The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in James Street, Northbridge. The performances are at 8.00 pm until Saturday the 19^th November. The Tuesday show, on the 15^th, is at the slightly earlier time of 6.30 pm.

        In a rental kitchen are seated three housemates, Caitlin (Whitney Richards), Aaron (Lawrence Ashford) and Maggie (Arielle Gray). They have recently been to the burial of their best friend. They are past the crying stage and are now trying to get back on track, without such a wonderful and central person in their lives.

        Caitlin replaces the memorial red rose on the fridge door, and Aaron continues to prepare breakfast for his lost love, as he has always done. He sits dreamily in silence, trying to eat his cereal. Maggie consoles him in the only way she knows. Caitlin is much more adaptable and seems to be suffering far less than her other two flatmates.

         They recall memories of their times together, their camping holiday, creepy night walks in the wood - anything to take their minds off their loss and move on. We watch as they come to terms in different ways.

         This play is all about mourning, the unbearable silences and pent up emotions which result from not being able to express one’s feeling on losing such a good friend. How your daily routine can change and even become pointless. Then the inevitable sick or disrespectful humour comes along. 

The acting, as one would expect from such a talented team, was excellent. Kathryn Osborne’s direction was inventive and intelligent. Production dramaturg Jeffrey Jay Fowler has brought light-hearted humour to the choreography.

However, I knew and learnt virtually nothing about the departed friend, and so had little understanding, sympathy or appreciation for the suffering of the household. Perhaps starting the story a little earlier with flowing tears, or a better description of what their friend did and meant to them would make the play more poignant.

Designer Alissa Claessens has created a typical students’ kitchen and left production manager, Jenna Boston, and the poor stage manager Alice Hatton to suffer at the end of each performance. A great deal of thought has gone into the lighting by designer Mike Nanning, with plenty of mood effects and clever use of colour. There was plenty of colour in the bars of composer, and sound engineer, Will Slade which added depth to the emotion.

I loved what was presented, but an extra 10 minutes at the beginning to help the audience know and feel empathy for the departed would really help. A quality production.