THE HEARTBREAK CHOIR

By Diana Simmonds

December 5 2024

THE HEARTBREAK CHOIR,, Ensemble Theatre, 4 December 2024-12 January 2025. Photography: Prudence Upton: above Nancy Denis, Valerie Bader, Carita Farrer Spencer, Tyallah Bullock and Georgina Symes; below Jay Laga’aia; below again Jasper Lee-Lindsay

Aidan Fennessy, playwright, dramaturg, performer and director, died at just 53 in Melbourne in 2020. He left this play – The Heartbreak Choir – already programmed by Melbourne Theatre Company, but Covid lockdowns caused its cancellation. It was finally produced in 2022, and although critically and popularly successful, it seems likely that if he’d lived, he would have done more work on it. Yet, staged in his absence and perhaps through a filtering glow of sentiment and sorrow, we have a curious melange that spans good and thrilling to not so good, and on into downright clunky and unfinished.

The result is an overlong but not long enough two hours and 25 minutes of comedy, drama, a cappella choir and fine character performances led by Valerie Bader as Barbara. She’s the country town matriarch and leader of a choir that has mysteriously come off worst in a schism, reducing their numbers to five. No longer able to rehearse in the comfort of the Catholic church hall, the play opens as she gingerly explores the run-down and smelly CFA hut. The essential faded photo of young QE2 hangs along the wall from varnished wooden honour rolls; there’s also an urn, a kettle, fluoro lights, a dodgy single bar heater and a piano. (Verity Hampson’s lighting and Nick Fry’s set and costumes are a delight of understatement, detail and atmospheric accuracy – see August Osage County, on this site, for the opposite.)

One by one the women arrive: ebullient, potty-mouth Mack (Carita Farrer Spencer), her silent Goth daughter Savannah (Tyallah Bullock), heavily pregnant ex-Zimbabwean Aseni (Nancy Denis), and rich-bitch-with-a-heart-of-gold Totty (Georgina Symes). They lark about while establishing who they are, then sing an African song. Cue applause because it’s genuinely thrilling. An inordinate amount of time is spent on adding more local colour while dropping hints as to why the choir split. The hints get darker and darker and more ominous when the recent suicide of Caro, their best friend and choir queen, is revealed.

Making a beautifully judged and comical entrance, Caro’s widower is local cop Peter (Jay Laga’aia). He’s accompanied by their son, a now understandably troubled teen, Beau (Jasper Lee-Lindsay). Secrets and lies abound, and tension ramps up in time to Beau’s pounding, bouncing basketball. The comedy-drama is interspersed with rehearsals and preparation for an unexpected gig. (Musical director Sally Whitwell has moulded the actors into a more than plausible singing group and their songs are integrated into the play, neither distractions nor add-ons.)

Nevertheless, with all activity confined to the CFA hall, it’s inevitable that the real action happens elsewhere and is related by the characters. It’s frustrating to have the sensible “show don’t tell” rule broken so constantly, particularly when an act of arson threatens everyone. Director Anna Ledwich maintains a steady pace and ensures that each actor is embedded in character and is vivid and authentic. But it’s the script that requires attention – to trim and revivify and attend to the various potholes (not just the one Totty constantly moans about).

The biggest pothole – more a yawning chasm – is the absence of what should be a climactic final scene: an impassioned courtroom speech from Beau, backed up by the women and his dad. It’s signalled but never happens and instead a gentle and lovely coup de théâtre lets down the narrative and the actors into a soft landing, rather than the much-needed dénouement of a plausibly muscular finale.

There is much to enjoy from the company of actors, in particular their comic timing and grasp of individual characters. Yet the play itself badly needs a dramaturg and completion. It’s been said elsewhere that Fennessy’s death occurred while the play was still in development – it certainly seems likely. Meanwhile, the cast delivers plenty of laughs and excruciating insights into country town life. And then there’s the music: if you enjoy comedy both spiky and tender, and a cappella voices, you’ll love The Heartbreak Choir.