Great White

‘Great White’ is a beautiful new play, written by the much-respected WA actor, Will O’Mahony. It is being presented by 'The Skeletal System' in the main theatre at The Blue Room Theatre, 53 James Street, Northbridge Performances are at 7.00 nightly until 29^th June.

The stage floor is covered with dozens of balloons, varying in size from 20 cms to a metre in diameter. They are a mix of white, with all shades of blue and green. They very effectively represent the waters of a calm ocean (designer Alicia Clements).

     A young man, Ben (Will O’Mahony) is on the beach paddling in the ocean. His new girlfriend, the chatty, moody and somewhat pedantic, Lauren (Mikala Westall) has just left to home alone. As quiet natured Ben splashes pensively in the waves, he is pondering whether Lauren is really the girl for him. He looks up, and a few metres further down the beach, Ben sees a beautiful girl (Adriane Daff) staring at him. As the girl approaches him, he becomes visibly uncomfortable. They start to talk and it becomes obvious that she is an old school friend that he has not seen for several years. Soon they are enjoying each other’s company.

     We flash back to about an hour earlier, when Lauren is mercilessly teasing her shy boyfriend. Lauren is slowly getting on Ben’s nerves before storming off.

     Later, we find the three enjoying each other’s company, however, something is worrying Ben, how can it be resolved?

Readers will know that I am not a fan of writer / directors, then add the task of actor and the thespian is getting into dodgy territory. Even though Will O’Mahony is an Equity Award winner and has proved himself many times as an actor, I was fearful that this play might be a bit self-indulgent – how wrong can one be? A superb script given to three magnificent actors, with Will totally in control. Adriane has a myriad of first-rate performances under her belt, but this for me was her crowning glory. Mikala can always be relied upon to give a quality performance, and here, her mood swings were wonderful. Director Will won the audience by under-playing the whole script, this helped develop the cast chemistry and win the audience’s sympathy.

The sound design by Will Slade took us through soft ethereal music to a raging storm, excellent. The lighting design (Joe Lui) of this beach scene could have been a simple ‘on/off’ floodlit area, however Joe, as ever, takes us through the colour changes of the daylight and linked them to the moods of the characters.

Sadly, the limits of the auditorium became apparent when an audience member had a call of nature at a critical point of the story, and walked out round the stage and through the wings. Congratulations to Will and Mikala on their unfazed performance.

I thoroughly enjoyed this play; it was fresh, exciting and presented with finesse. Many congratulations.