A perfect setting for a good drama is when the main character is at a point in their life when they decide that it is time to have just one last throw of the dice over an issue that has been troubling them.

This is what happens in Australian playwright Jane Caparella’s play E-Baby currently playing at Kirribilli’s Ensemble Theatre in a production directed by the very experienced stage and screen director Nadia Tass.

Danielle Carter plays Catherine a 45 year old Aussie expat living in London. Catherine has  a good life,  she has a happy marriage and a successful legal career. However, in one aspect of her life she has been thwarted for a long time. She has desperately been trying to have a child  without success. There is  only a brief window of time left open for her. She has her last throw of the dice and goes online in search of a surrogate mother.

Her search proves fruitful. She finds a suitable American woman, Nellie, played by Gabrielle Scawthorn, to have her ‘e-baby’.

The play follows the course of their ‘working’ relationship to its eventual conclusion.

I found E-BABY to be a very engrossing  night in the theatre. The play gave so many insights into a world which I, and I suspect many others, know precious little about.

The piece worked excellently well as a drama. The characters were brought to life so well by the two actresses  and there was plenty of tension generated as the outcome hung in the balance right up till the very end.

The playwright contrasted her two characters very well. Catherine is  a very driven, highly strung middle class woman, Nellie is a much more laid back working class woman who has to contend with a not very understanding husband.

Nadia Tass’ direction was effective and a strong creative team – Tobhiyah Feller-set, Nicholas Higgins – lighting, Christopher Page – AV design, and  composer Daniel Nixon- vividly created the stage world.

Recommended, E-BABY is playing the Ensemble Theatre until the 13th November.

http://www.ensemble.com.au