Sydney playwright Geoffrey Sykes’ play BLOOD ON THE WATTLE takes us into the world of Karl Matters, the cynical, world weary, conservative member for Western Slopes.
It is coming up to election time and Karl looks like he is going to miss out on pre-selection by his party as they aren’t impressed by his progressive attitude in relation to climate change policy.
Helping to keep Karl’s stress levels from rising too far is his very capable personal assistant, Louise Patterson.
This rather brittle status quo is interrupted when Karl meets Vania, a Middle Eastern lady, at a local cafe. Vania is a casual farmworker who is trying her luck in town.
Their first meeting doesn’t end well. Karl goes and kisses Vania on the cheek and Vania is affronted by this.
They run into each other again and the good natured Vania forgives Karl’s indiscretion. Vania tells Karl that she is finding it difficult to get work and Karl offers her a job in his office.
Vania takes up the offer and turns up much to the chagrin of Louise. As the friendship between Karl and Vania grows deeper, Karl learns about Vania’s difficult past, that she came to Australia as a refugee. Karl affronts Vania again by asking her, ‘are you legal?’.
For this new production, he has a whole list of credits, Sykes has chosen to perform his play in two venues; the Richard Wherrett Studio at the Roslyn Packer Theatre and the Chippen Street Theatre in Chippendale. I was fortunate to catch this play at the Richard Wherrett Studio where I could see a portrait of the late, great man, for many years the brilliant Artistic Director of the Sydney Theatre Company, looking across at us from the far wall.
The production features good performances from the trio of actors.
Ken Welsh excels in the role of pollie Karl who goes through something of a mid life crisis/change during which some of his hard worn attitudes change. Karl is a role that I could envisage someone like John Howard (the actor not the pollie!) playing.
Befrin Axtjarn Jackson gave a well crafted, impassioned performance as the dynamic Vania. My only quibble is that it was hard to hear her sometimes. With her soft voice she needs to project more.
Kloud Milas gave a neat performance as Karl’s personal assistant, Louise Patterson. She conveyed well her character’s stand-offish, even racist attitude to the new member of staff.
Verdict. This is a worthy play which takes a radical path. Here are just some things that the team might like to consider.
The play assumes that the audience are very politically literate. If there are some amongst the audience who aren’t, they are going to feel very lost by this play. There needs to be more tips, for want of a better phrase, in the script that the audience can pick up on. We are not all politically savvy.
I wasn’t convinced by the transition that Vania underwent from being a casual farmworker to becoming a politician running for office. This transition, as cathartic as it is, felt like it needs to be more fleshed out.
The play’s pacing worked well except for a few of the scenes between Karl and Vania which felt just a bit slow and needed tightening.
The use of a large monitor screen on the side of the stage which alerted audiences to the play’s various settings felt a little clunky. If it would be possible to organise a digital screen above the actors, much like the surtitle screen used in operas, this would work better. Maybe the expense precludes this?
A playscript production, Geoffrey Sykes’ BLOOD ON THE WATTLE will play the Chippen Street Theatre, Level One 45 Chippen Street Chippendale between Thursday 31 March and 9th April 2022. Performance time 7.30pm.
Featured image : Befrin Axtjarn Jackson and Ken Welsh in Geoffrey Sykes ‘Blood On The Wattle’.