It’s not the tune but what a musician does with the tune that often gives a piece its special quality.

The same goes for a writer…it’s not so much the subject, but how a writer plays/works with it, the composition, if you like, that can give a play its appeal, its resonance.

There’s some interesting touches and tones that playwright Benedict Hardie brings to the perennial theme that exists within THE BOAT PEOPLE.

The play is about the steps that people go about to rebuild their lives in their new homeland and the baggage and the struggles that they have gone through in getting ‘here’ and the touch balancing acts involved.

Benedict Hardie helms his own play and realises a strong production. The show goes 100 minutes straight through and the cast keep up a good energy all the way through.

As the two former refugees, Susie Youssef plays the very ambitious Sarah and William Erimya  plays her companion Karl,  a troubled but jokey soul.

Emily Rose Brennan primarily as a pushy journalist and Luke Joseph Ryan mainly as an equally pushy, though in an all together way, physical trainer in the supporting roles.

THE BOAT PEOPLE is set in Sarah and Karl’s living room of their upmarket house with its all glass outlook as deftly suggested by Michael Hankin’s design.

Recommended, THE BOAT PEOPLE, a co TRS and Hayloft Project production, plays at the Bondi Pavilion Theatre until 21st June.