Sam O’Sullivan’s clever, complex take on home and family shines in director Lucy Clements’ hands in The Wind in The Underground, a new production from New Ghosts Theatre Company.
The Wind in the Underground is the story of four siblings at a crossroads; reunited as adults to sell their childhood home. The play snaps back and forth between the characters in childhood and the now to create a patchwork backstory to their relationship with one another.
Dialogue is witty and fast paced – at times almost too fast- as the characters weave together scenes from their history to inform the present. Simon (Rowan Davies), the youngest, has been travelling the world. Andrea (Bishanyia Vincent), the oldest, is a harried mother of several children. Claire (Whitney Richards)has had her life on hold for years to care for their father. Mitchell (Michael Abercromby) is pushing to sell the family house, sparking a re-emergence of their family’s complex dynamics and long buried conflicts.
Flip to the four characters as youngsters jostling and playing in their backyard. The actors are barefoot, in street clothes throughout. Simple set design, coupled with lighting and an expressive soundscape conjure childhood afternoons spent diving and splashing in the pool, endless hours of hide and seek.
Clements makes strong use of the physical space. Sibling alliances and conflicts are represented in the positioning of the actors on stage and characters move through the audience throughout the performance, creating a vivid outdoor backdrop to their unfolding childhood story. The director has deftly shaped the tones of this one act play; characters bounce off one another, sparring and joking with compelling chemistry and then seamlessly change gear to reveal sadder moments; the legacy of their mother’s absence, the hurt they have caused each other.
Rowan Davies’ Simon is show stealing, equally convincing as an exuberant five year old and a footloose twenty something. Perth’s Michael Abercromby is commanding as the volatile Mitchell and Bishanyia Vincent earns the laughs as relatable, salt of the earth mum Andrea. But it is Claire’s story that feels like the central point of this play. Whitney Richards rises to the challenge of articulating the nuance and subtlety in this role; animating the sensitive wallflower by embracing her reticence against the noise and chaos of her siblings.
O’Sullivan has created a smart, moving script. From the poetic opening line, “the screen door, the hallway cupboard…” – at once evocative and meaningful within the story, to the motifs he draws skilfully through the dialogue – the Freo Doctor, the wind in the underground – the writing is sincere and surprising. The Wind in the Underground is light footed and eloquent, it squeezes at your heart, it’s relatable, and ultimately it’s affirming about love, family, and the potential for change.
The Wind in the Underground plays at the State Theatre Centre of WA until Saturday 3rd February as part of The Blue Room Theatre’s Summer Nights and Fringe World Festival. Tickets can be purchased at bit.ly/thewindintheunderground
Must See 4.5 STARS
Kim Kirkman – Theatre Now & on The Town
