PORT

By Diana Simmonds

September 25 2025

PORT, December Theatre Co at KXT on Broadway, 24 September-4 October 2025. Photography by Phil Erbacher

Brit playwright Simon Stephens is best known in Australia and globally for his award-laden adaptation of A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2012). He’s prolific as well as successful, however, and in 2003, as well as other works, had already scored a mid-range hit with Port, which is arguably more interesting because it’s original and didn’t start as someone else’s novel.

As it is, Port has been chosen for its debut by the new independent December Theatre Co, and in both choice and outcome, it’s thrilling. Directed with finesse and visible smarts by Nigel Turner-Carroll, the company of eight delivers two hours of absorbing, heart-stopping storytelling. It’s centred on Grace Stamnas as Racheal (sic), who starts as a sassy, ornery kid and grows into adolescence, then young womanhood through a few bittersweet ups and some recognisably awful downs.

“Port” is the semi-affectionate nickname bestowed on Stockport by its inhabitants. In 1988, when the play is set, the town had long been subsumed by Greater Manchester. And it was even less lovesome than it had ever been as the predations of Thatcherism and post-industrialisation sucked out any remaining life. Without meaningful work, its traditional working class had been reduced to a kind of belligerently hopeless underclass. And that’s where Racheal, her irritating little brother Billy (Owen Hasluck), and their mother (Megan O’Connell) find themselves: locked out of the family flat by their sad and sodden father/husband, so they prepare to sleep in the car.

The next thirteen years wear away Racheal’s sparky optimism as first their mother does a runner, after which, turn and turn about, they fall foul of a disintegrating society. Billy’s out-of-control response to his misery lands him first in juvy and then in jail. Racheal’s dreams of college and betterment crumble as does her almost-relationship with first love Danny (swoony James Collins).

The play is advanced mostly through dialogue until explosively choreographed action breaks out, mostly between Billy and his mates, as well as being alarmingly suggested around Racheal. (Fight choreographer: Diego Retamales.) KXT’s traverse stage is imaginatively and effectively used throughout, not least when the actors seamlessly effect scene changes: benches, chairs, a table, and bits of urban detritus are virtually danced on and off stage, and neatly apposite costumes are shed and pulled on under varying states of gloom or bright light. (Set design: Soham Apte, lighting design Travis Kecek, costume design Benedict Janeczko-Taylor.)

There are crucial turning points for Racheal, ranging from a violent confrontation with her grandmother to her leaving of ‘Port with dodgy new husband Kevin (a chilling Kyle Barrett). Both are mistakes, and her regrets are at once matter-of-fact and bitter. And so is her reunion with Danny. Although little happens in Port that isn’t a known fact of late 20th-century British life, none of it is predictable or trite. Rather, reminders of how lives are navigated through the shoals and reefs of the everyday are sharply drawn and relatable, with punctuating snatches of music and sound (sound design: Cameron Smoth).

Port is an unexpected, complex play that becomes more and more fascinating as it goes on, across two decades to Millennium eve of 1999 and the quickly forgotten expectations of that momentous night. Grace Stamnas gives a strong, sustained, and nuanced performance as Racheal from 11 to 24, and she’s supported by an equally spirited company, including Rachel Crossan, Finn Middleton, and Benjamin Louttit, all secure in their roles and the savoury accents of the north-west and Manchester. (Voice and dialect coach: Patrick Klavins.)

As is so often the case, the most engaging and vital theatre is to be found in Sydney’s indie sector, and this production of Port is no exception (and it is exceptional!) Short ,short season: don’t miss.