Tuesday March 19, 2024
THE WHALE
Review

THE WHALE

February 5 2016

THE WHALE, Redline Productions at the Old Fitz, 2 February-4 March 2016. Photography by Rupert Reid: above - Alex Beauman and Keith Agius; right: Chloe Bayliss.

It’s a pity American playwright Samuel D Hunter isn’t in Sydney to see this staging of his 2012 play The Whale – he couldn’t fail to be thrilled by it. Directed by Shane Anthony, the actors – Keith Agius, Chloe Bayliss, Alex Beauman, Meredith Penman and Hannah Waterman – are a superb company and this production must surely be yet another box office and critical success for Redline.

The play is set in a shabby apartment living room where Charlie (Keith Agius) is surely killing himself with misery and junk food. He is a grotesque figure, weighing some 270kgs and scarcely able to move from the groaning sofa where he spends his days and nights. His only contact with the wider world is via his laptop and headset through which he painstakingly lectures disinterested students in an online Eng.Lit. course.

To his – and our – surprise, a knock on the door admits an unlikely visitor: a callow Mormon missionary Elder Thomas (Alex Beauman). To our further surprise Charlie doesn’t immediately show the pamphlet-waving lad the door but engages him in a gentle Q&A. Charlie’s only friend and next visitor is a neighbour and nurse, Liz (Meredith Penman). She is outraged by the proselytising pup and would have him out on his ear but Charlie good-naturedly demurs. As the play unfolds the puzzling connections between this trio become apparent, but that’s down the track.

Charlie could and – in lesser hands – should be a repulsive and unsympathetic figure. He watches porn, he lives in squalor (clever shudder-making set by Charlie Davis with equally clever lighting by Alexander Berlage) he munches his way through buckets of KFC surrounded by choc and cookie wrappers. The apartment smells, the furnishings are rancid, the only bright, lively note is the fish tank where three goldfish dart and twirl in crystal clear water. And yet Keith Agius quickly makes him a man to like, to be fascinated by and to empathise with. 

Despite his laboured wheezing and mountainous body (a properly realistic rather than comic fat suit) his mental agility, wry humour and obvious compassion are immediately appealing. It makes sense that Liz likes him and cares for him – even if she does enable him with buckets of fried chicken and double portions of Subways.

And then his daughter Ellie appears (Chloe Bayliss). She is 15 and volcanically angry – not an uncommon state for a young teenager – however as well as raging hormones and natural resentment, they have not seen each other since she was four years old. That’s when her mother packed their bags upon being told that her husband was actually gay and in love with a man.

On the periphery of these unlikely meetings and relationships is another, deeper and more mysterious, strand – lightly symbolised by the goldfish and Charlie’s self awareness of his physical state. Although he watches junk TV with as much relish as he consumes the food-style products advertised on it, he is even more preoccupied – quietly obsessed – by Herman Melville’s novel of the great white whale Moby Dick. And not necessarily for the most obvious reason. 

THE WHALE

As the play unfolds (and it does do that) the inexorable hunt for the whale of literature links with Charlie’s own knowledge of his impending death and meanwhile, his sad wish to seek out even a glimmer of enthusiasm and understanding in his students. He also hopes and tries to reconnect with his energetically antagonistic daughter even as he merrily tortures the naive Elder Thomas with the content of his ridiculous Book of Mormon.

While the play’s outcome is, on the one hand, inevitable and obvious – Charlie will die before the evening is out – The Whale is much more than that. In the second half his embittered wife Mary arrives like a Mid-West tornado (Hannah Waterman) and further turns expectations upside down. 

Against all expectations The Whale is funny – sometimes laugh out loud, sometimes acid-dipped and shocking – and it’s also sensitive in the way an array of topics are addressed. You’ll leave the theatre wondering about family, parenting, friendship, teaching and, in particular, how easy it is to stuff up every single one of them. And then there’s religion and the hideous place it occupies in the back story of this particular story (go see it – no spoilers).

Keith Agius is – for obvious reasons – rarely offstage and is magnificently subtle and magnetic in his portrayal of the tragic anti-hero. Chloe Bayliss is as electrifying and intelligent as one has come to expect of her. While Meredith Penman has the least defined and satisfactory character, she inhabits her and the all important relationship with Charlie with heart and cool judgement. Hannah Waterman’s daggy yet lionhearted Mary is an intrepid and delicious characterisation. And last but definitely not least, Alex Beauman is a relative newcomer whose capacity to be the geeky Elder Thomas is thrilling. 

All in all, with equally excellent work from composer Basil Hogios and sound designer  Katelyn Shaw that paints in a wash of contrasting ocean sounds and the cacophony of junk life, The Whale is a fabulous start to 2016 for Redline and the Old Fitz. Don’t miss it.

 

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