Director Daniel Evans put it excellently when he said Michael Gow's 'Away' is “a hotel mini bar. It feels like a cocktail to start, a hard spirit in the middle and a red to bed”. The play, now on at La Boite Theatre, provides a gateway through which three fully-bloomed flowerbeds lie and overlap.
These three flowerbeds are beautiful, yet complex, in their own way. They are, of course, the three families we meet in 'Away' – each bearing rich, intricate histories, and conflicts they must overcome.
With a cast including Bryan Probets, Christen O'Leary, Billy Fogarty, Emily Burton and Reagan Mannix, the iconic Australian work receives a careful, considered, nuanced treatment for its 35th anniversary. The production is set against a sparse – yet effective – backdrop, with spectacular lighting design (wait for the storm sequence) brought by the extraordinary talents of Ben Hughes.
Character development moves at a believable pace, each of the actors fitting their assigned roles like a glove. Christen O'Leary's Coral has devastation behind her eyes and a fragility so apparent it is as though she is made of glass. Similarly, the dichotomy of husband Roy's happy-go-lucky school principal and soul-crushed man about the house personas are handled with expert-level care by Bryan Probets. Meanwhile, the hardened exterior of Emily Burton's Gwen slowly and convincingly goes from shatterproof to forbearing in a genuinely delightful (and somehow simultaneously infuriating) performance.
In what is surprisingly his professional theatre debut, Reagan Mannix is illuminating, playing Tom – a role requiring an actor not afraid to go deeper but also one capable of expressing the frivolity and carefree nature of youth. Then, Billy Fogarty manages to embody the levelheaded Meg, a child caught between two at-odds parents, but seemingly wise and contemplative beyond her years.
Every single member of the cast works with their on-stage companions to successfully create an atmosphere hard to determine, in the best way possible. Should you laugh, or cry? Should you feel uncomfortable, or as though you're floating on a cloud? 'Away' is powerful because of its ability to conjure up these emotional dilemmas, and 'conjure' it does.
Some of the best theatre is the kind that can leave a mark. If the 35-year-long staying power of this production isn't enough to convince you of that from afar, why not see it for yourself? Who knows – you might just be swept away.
★★★★☆ 1/2.
'Away' is on at La Boite (Brisbane) until 13 November.
