Presented by Adelaide Festival Centre and CDP
Reviewed Tuesday 14th August 2012
This is another in a series of similar works where a group of people come together, share their pasts, and evaluate their present situations. In particular, many would recall seeing Codgers, written by Don Reid. This new production is his take on the women of that same advanced age group, with the occasional reference linking this to the earlier work. As with that previous production, this is directed by Wayne Harrison, providing another link.
This play does not come together as well, though, as Codgers did. It lacks the cohesiveness, and Reid tends to telegraph so much in this script. It is rather predictable, as I realised when, having remembered that old song about three old ladies who got locked in a convenience, it actually turned up in the play after they got locked in the classroom. Perhaps the concept is wearing off, too, as this was not a sold out opening night as I had expected. There was a certain amount of light humour, but hardly a constant flow of belly laughs.
After many decades, five women are back at their old school, Inglehurst, where they are embroidering new cushions for the school chapel. Although the classroom that they are using is clearly for a primary class, we understand that there must also be a secondary school in the grounds, as the women often refer to their Latin classes with Miss Cantwell, and her approach to teaching, which she egotistically titled ‘The Cantwell Method’.
Maggie Blinco, Annie Byron, Vivienne Garrett, Julie Hudspeth, and Donna Lee play the five old school companions, although we soon learn that their characters were not necessarily all in the same years, or classes. Their academic accomplishments are as varied as their lives and their current situations, and all of this gets discussed at length. In the first scene we discover that one is a control freak and has organised another three to work on the cushions. It takes some time before we discover that the fifth, who doesn’t appear to be involved in the needlework, has an alternative agenda and tries to subvert the group to her own ideas. In the second scene we see the power play between the two competing women and an uneasy truce, allocating time to each of their competing schemes.
The numerous mentions made that the door must be left open, as a signal to the janitor that they are still there, reiterated every time somebody closes the door, lets us know well in advance (even if we had not actually being told in the publicity) that they are going to get locked in. When the mobile telephones are collected and left outside to prevent distractions to their work, we know that they are going to have to stay locked in. The interminable references to their teacher suggest that we will eventually be meeting her, and so we do. Acquaintances that I spoke to during the interval assumed, as I also did, that she would turn out to be a ghost, considering the ages of the five women and the fact that their talk suggested that their teacher was already of senior years when she was teaching them, and could not possibly still be alive.
It turned out that we were wrong. Linden Wilkinson, (who is actually by far the youngest in the cast) plays the austere and authoritative ex-school teacher, Miss Cantwell, still imposing her will on them in spite of hobbling around behind her walking frame. She demands to know what they have done since leaving school, and berates them for their lack of success and failure to have gained from her teachings. They are no longer school children and, as this fact occurs to them, they begin to fight back, eventually accusing her of being a bully, a bad teacher, and blaming her for all of their problems, until she leaves. Even her pet pupil, top of the school in all of the subjects that she took, academically gifted and sure to succeed, Agnes, who is now a spinster a librarian, turns against her. Maggie Blinco gave the best performance of the group in this role, maintaining a veneer of being content with her career and her decision to remain single, until the truth finally comes out with a show of emotion.
In the final scene, some days later, they have all begun making changes in their lives, have completed their sewing, and their other project is ready to roll, as you will find out if you see this production. Since this only happens after their encounter with the formidable Miss Cantwell, it would appear that she was actually the catalyst for change, and perhaps their accusations were not as well founded as they asserted. Her probing and belittling was what, after all, gave them the impetus to retaliate by trying to get their lives in order.
There is plenty of energy and enthusiasm from these five veterans of the theatre that helps to carry the script, and some good characterisations, but some judicious trimming and rewriting could make all the difference. This was a pleasant enough evening, but not an experience that will be long remembered.
Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor, Glam Adelaide.
Venue: Her Majesty’s Theatre, 58 Grote Street, Adelaide
Season: To Saturday 18th August, 2012
Duration: 2hrs 10 mins incl interval
Tickets: $35 to $55
Bookings: BASS 131246 or here
More News
