Between is exactly how I would describe Mophead Theatre’s world premiere production of Melita Rowston’s BETWEEN THE STREETLIGHT AND THE MOON. The play is not quite sure of its identity and the cast are caught in the blurry light between natural beauty and mechanical glare. There is some fine work to be seen in the production, work which explores the complex ideas and does its best to elevate the overstatement.

Australian Academic Zadie works at King’s College, London. She is being pressured by the publish or perish mentality as she struggles to complete her PHD. She proposes that there is a letter somewhere that proves that Édouard Manet, despite his denials, was lover to his oft subject, and artist in her own right, Berthe Morisot. She is also supervising her effervescent French student, Dominique, and dealing with a younger, almost lover, Barry, who has come to London to display in a prestigious art competition. When she travels to Paris at the behest friend and Head of Department, Janet, she has random encounters with artistic provocateur Jeff.

Lucy Miller always has a strong stage presence and here she successfully layers Zadie with the conflicted frustration and inertia that is explained toward the end of the play. The people around Zadie suggest that she is handicapped by perfectionism and that complexity is evident in Miller’s work. Plus her strong voice and physicality, in a show where there are precious few props, costume, handbags and so forth to hang on to, successfully gives Zadie the standalone, secret life which is required if the audience is to accept the revelations which take place in the latter part of the show.

Suzanne Pereira as Janet has a lovely relationship with Zadie. She is the administrator torn between belief in the project and the pressure which she gets from above. However, for me, the script did not give her enough to work with for the turnaround which takes place when a friend and colleague suddenly decides that tough love is required.

Miller is also well matched by Joanna Downing as Dominique who is as vibrant and effusive as Zadie is interior and reflective. She is genuinely likeable and her motivations and relationships are clear and nicely expressed. She also has a very good handle on the French accent which, once one’s ear is tuned in, is lyrical and aurally interesting. Except, unfortunately, in the dénouement where the thickness of the accent meant neither my companion nor I understood why the ending happens.

Lani Tupu as Jeff does give expression to a man who believes in the power of self-belief but the mental highs and lows suggested by his story are not evident . For me, Jeff appears so laid back as to be bored.

Ben McIvor’s Barry however is brimming with energy to elucidate the artistically driven immature motivations towards visibility and success in other’s eyes. He has great body language and I loved the way he gave Baz a bigness, a brashness, without overwhelming the other characters.

Director Anthony Skuse has moderated his cast very well in an intelligent use of a difficult space. They move with an uncluttered ease around the visually simple set. Skuse allows the projection to speak for itself and the choice and preparation of the images are meticulous, very well placed in the text, and evocative. The colour manipulation and slight disfocus of Morisot really supports the story and removes any uncomfortable museum/art gallery emotional manipulation. The clever creation of the Seine gives ripples and reflections which extend the streetlight/moon metaphor.

Skuse also understands that the Naturalists, who would prepare the art world for Impressionism, are currently part of the zeitgeist with the  Tate Gallery in Britain at last acquiring William Stott’s ‘La Passeur’. He does not crowd the screen nor allow it to overwhelm and be constantly pulling focus. Similarly the live music, with Benjamin Freeman playing an upright piano just off set, serves to sting and sling as well as provide ambience and counterpoint. For me though, my initial delight in the quality of this production was ground down by the length and over extension of the story. It’s a lovely mystery but it takes too long to get there and points are well made … but too often.

In the early scenes BETWEEN THE STREETLIGHT AND THE MOON is a deliciously dense text. A lover of the visual arts can revel in the allusions and references that neatly stop short of pretension. A lover of text, words or ideas can mine the clever lines which cascade, dripping with meaning, yet without exaggerated focus. So many enjoyable take-away concepts. There is a line about competing with penises which really had the funny, slowburn, delayed, cognitive echoes that I just adore. And very rich subtext, the most subtle of which is the illusory ‘male gaze’ blocking.

It is delightfully gynocentric for that first half. Feminist ideologies and interrogation of paintings such as Courbet’s Origin of the World. There was lovely reclamative language and real female energy. Zadie even eats an apple in a throwaway to the biblical. But the circular nature of the female orgasm is weakened by the increasingly linear scenes of the second half of the show and the male monologue in the centre. We don’t even end at the beginning; there are several scenes after that. Ideas are repeated too often and are watered down as the script plods toward a resolution of the story elements. And if I was honest, my companion and I found being sardined on very hard chairs, a hot venue and the lack of an interval part of the distraction from total engagement as the play drew to its conclusion.

There is, however. much to enjoy here. “BETWEEN THE STREETLIGHT AND THE MOON was one of five finalists from 131 entries for the Sydney Theatre Company Patrick White Playwright Award in 2016 and was also shortlisted for The Silver Gull Award in 2015.” And this is its World Premiere. With a prestigious company like Mophead behind it and talented cast and creatives to give it first life, this play is sure to change and grow. Audiences have a rare opportunity to bear witness to the tension between beauty and machinery, between ideas and entertainment as the space between streetlight and moon nurtures the potential of this work.

BETWEEN THE STREETLIGHT AND THE MOON continues at the King’s Cross Theatre until 27th May.