Andrew Bovell’s absorbing and powerful family chronicle is adroitly performed, writes Steve Davis.
Details
Venue: OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
Dates & Opening Times: 21st – 24th November, 8.00 pm
Tickets: From £10 www.ticketsource.co.uk
Our Verdict
Andrew Bovell’s drama set in modern day Australia credibly portrays one family with its infuriating shortcomings as well as its admirable strengths.
Fran and Bob Price (Dorothy Duffy and James Lloyd Pegg) have brought up their four children in their house in Hallett Cove, suburban Adelaide. Fran is the undoubted power here, a matriarch with an uncanny ability to not only know when there is something her children don’t want her to know but what that something is. Bob spends most of his time tending to the garden, including a wonky gumtree (part of the effective set by Mark Pearce). He seems slow to anger but like many still rivers his waters run deep.
We join the story as the youngest daughter Rosie (Berenike Kahane) is returning prematurely from a tour of Europe. The experience has not lived up to her expectations and she’s surprised how much she misses the certainty of home. When she arrives we start to discover some of the tensions that exist between the members of the family.
The cut and thrust of normal family life – the disputes about which route is quicker, whether to buy a home or international products, the stories that everyone knows but the teller wants to repeat – are meticulously observed.
But we can also see how some of this banter masks a more fractured relationship beneath. Fran appears hardest on her elder daughter Pip (Tarryn Meaker) who seems unfulfilled in her world. Bob is critical of the values and the way of life of his younger son Ben (Ben Dimmock) and the older son Mark (Ian Kinane) seems distanced from the rest of the family. All of them have secrets and keeping them safe impacts on their relationships with the others.
As well as Bovell’s involving and believable story the main strength of the production is the excellence of the actors. The mainly British cast handle the Aussie accents with real skill and the margins between the mundane and the dramatic are expertly played (particularly by Duffy and Kahane).
Credit should also go to the inconspicuous direction of Susan Conte who lets the action (sometimes choreographed) feel instinctive and spontaneous. The intimate space of the charming (and sold out) Old Sorting Office Theatre was a perfect sphere for the piece.
They say you can choose your friends but not your family. This may be the case but ‘Things I Know To Be True’ confirms you can’t always choose who you love.