A Local Man
Tony Barry makes a sweetly soulful and generously three-dimensional, pipe smoke-scented man of Ben Chifley, prime minister of Australia, train driver, self-made man and Labor hero.
It’s to his immense credit that his belief and empathy with the man enables him to inject life and human credibility into a script that has been wrung of almost all energy and lightness. And this is not because the play is set over the last weekend of Chifley’s life - as his overtaxed heart begins to make its presence felt. He speaks on the telephone to the operator (yes, apparently you could speak to a real person who wasn’t in Mumbai in 1949); to his secretary in Canberra (yes, she was more than a competent shorthand-typist but that’s not the point to his wife and into a dictaphone microphone as he composes a speech (no, they didn’t do sound grabs in those days).
When A Local Man was first performed in Bathurst - Chifley’s home town - it was very much a product of its origins: plodding university drama project with a local historian (Robin McLachlan) as its originating writer together with visiting grand poo-bah Bob Ellis to provide the theatrical and political tickle.
Trouble is, historians are notorious for not letting a good story get in the way of the facts, while Ellis tends towards the opposite style, so Barry has to contend with a lot: brain-straining stodge one minute, acid-dripped one-liners the next; and all with about three strands of chronology and story going simultaneously.
Then there’s the music. Some of the most trite choices possible have been made, with the probable intention of leaving no heartstring unplucked. This disregards the splendour of Chifley’s story and his own words - unadorned and simple. Happily, in this season at the Ensemble, there seems to be less music for the actor to fight with than before. This is a good thing.
Barry’s performance is also a good thing: a genuine, honest interpretation of the man who, for a brief period, was Australia’s Light on the Hill, never dimmed but so far, never really re-lit.
A Local Man, Ensemble Theatre, Extended to December 23; ph: 9929 0644 or www.ensemble.com.au
