Elizabeth Surbey

GOOD GRIEF : A SHOW ABOUT COMING TO TERMS WITH LOSS

Inspired by confessional, contemporary theatre this solo one woman show uses direct address to powerfully draw the audience in. At times it is deliberate, that we might be able to bare witness in some nascent aside as she eyerolls the lawyerly funeral home attendant. Or again as our performer glides into the roles of the ‘other’ – flight check in receptionist and then flight attendant – all the while Georgie glances at us as if to say – you know? You get it? Do you see?

Our artist has successfully, on the whole, woven the bitter pill narrative with humour. We laugh out loud at the hype, the anger manifest, the over charged hurting and the adrenaline of pain. What can we do but laugh in the knowing of the black comedy. Life and death. It all comes down to this.

As Georgie takes the time to invest, sharing a remarkable journey of a young woman’s grief, we may very well be asking ourselves the big what if questions. A grief relived and reflecting the reporting of past events revisited. Grief at so much loss. Loss of what she knows she should have had. Loss in the timing.

The collective is the driving choice. This is a story worth telling. Losing your mother again and again. She reflects the 14 year old, the 9 year old, the 18 year old. The complication of now i’ts cancer. Existentially more or less than the intergenerational trauma of the exit from Ukraine, the grandmother, the mother and a sensitively complicated relationship trail. Truncated by the periods of non-contact, the difficult visits, mental illness and alcoholism. Then at 22 the penultimate pledge. I’ll make it home again. 

The collaborating designers have interwoven a multi layered theatrical provocation in the visual, through film and media. Song story and accompanying music. A single prop feature to cleverly create a changing space and place. The pastiche of the moments recalled work. They work for Georgie so indelibly on a path of both recall and a healing reminiscence. A hope.

Well done, Georgie, well done team, it was worth it. A beautiful telling by a promising young artist. What a journey you have been on. So important that you have brought us along.

Georgina Pender and Same Brain Productions production GOOD GRIEF, is presented as part of the ‘Emerging Artist Sharehouse’ of the Sydney Fringe Festival at Erskineville Town Hall 28-30 September, 9pm

Review by Elizabeth Surbey

 

Published by Elizabeth Surbey

Elizabeth had a passion for theatre and performing from her youth and was a keen contributor to the joint school musicals- mostly the Gilbert and Sullivan romps. Once she headed to university this passion dominated with a 4 year stint at UNE in Armidale encompassing both performance and directing as major components of her Double Major in Drama and Major in English Literature. The year after graduation she found herself not only at the newly formed Actors' Centre but also teaching high school drama. She is still there, teaching, directing, writing for high school Drama and on the side across the years has performed in small season productions at Q theatre and directed several productions for the Short & Sweet program being a part of the inaugural group. Keenly she has represented other drama educators as committee member then President of Drama NSW also representing NSW on the National Committee at Drama Australia National Conferences. She completed her MA a century ago also with a focus on Drama & Theatre at UNSW. She is now a mum of two and recently directed her sixth Musical - perhaps now coming full circle in the scheme of things. She was contributing and consulting editor on a major Drama text for Cambridge Uni Press "Drama ReLoaded". More than anything she loves theatre and is very keen to share her experiences with this forum. Each year she directs secondary students in plays from Australia and across the globe, in productions large and small.