The audience is a fly on the wall in Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s ‘The Whale’.
Viewers have seen and praised Brendan Fraser’s performance in the 2022 film ‘The Whale’ (a role for which he won an Academy Award), but many may not know the film is based on a play.
The Alex Theatre in St Kilda hosts this play – a devastatingly emotional, awkward, uncomfortable, intense work which is heightened by its staging and audience placement. The stage shape is reminiscent of a runway at a fashion show, and seats for attendees are placed on either side. This throws us right into the middle of the action, as we essentially sit right along the walls of Charlie’s home.
The set’s length and narrowness means heads in the audience are constantly moving left and right to capture the dialogue and physical responses of the actors. This is incredibly effective – it’s a theatrical tennis match, with heavy words and emotions rallying back and forth before us.
Image © Ben Andrews
Adam Lyon’s Charlie is convincingly lost – essentially a shell of his former self, and as creatives mention in a post-show Q&A, his character is almost an illness more than a person. Adam portrays this well, and it’s made even more effective thanks to padding and a bodysuit. His soft, affected demeanour is palpable – this is a man who has been through and seen unimaginable things. He’s shaken by trauma but has an admirable optimism.
Tanya Schneider is emotionally unhinged and on edge as Charlie’s ex-wife Mary – who has also lost herself. Her smaller stage time is utilised well and her disdain and disapproval for the Charlie of today is just as strong as the love she very clearly once had for him in spades.
Melanie Gleeson’s Liz is complex and at times hard to read – Liz’s enabling of Charlie’s unhealthy habits paired with her determination for him to get better is layered and intriguing.
Image © Ben Andrews
Skye Feldman does cold and unfeeling very well as Charlie’s daughter Ellie – she’s in the thick of teen-dom and struggles to see the beauty in Charlie’s unwavering adoration for his child, instead choosing to despise him and what he has become. Some more dimension and light and shade in Skye’s portrayal could help the audience to have more sympathy for her and see more nuance, however this may simply be how the character is written.
Sebastian Li is utterly spellbinding as Elder Thomas. There’s notes of pure innocence, a desire to be liked, and just a hint of doubt in the worthiness of his cause to save those he meets door knocking for the Mormon church. This is another layered character who has flaws but a heart of gold, and it’s a complete joy to watch him here.
‘The Whale’ could be seen as a character study. . . Mainly, of course, on Charlie, but even on the four characters who surround him. Each is complex in their own way, with inner demons and struggles with which they wrestle constantly. It makes for an intriguing two acts, filled primarily with despair and a profound sadness, but injected with sharp-as-a-tack humour which pierces through thick tension at the most unexpected moments.
★★★★☆
