Company B Belvoir, the Griffin Theatre Company and ThinIce’s production of Tom Holloway’s new play ‘Love Me Tender’ is the current production playing upstairs at Belvoir Street. This is another intensely dramatic piece by the Tasmanian born playwright who first came to prominence with his play, ‘Beyond The Neck’, about the Port Arthur Massacre.

As in many of Shakespeare’s great plays, the elemental force of nature plays a huge role in Holloway’s new work. It isn’t long into ‘Love Me Tender’ that we know that the father, the play is set around a rugged young Australian family, is on the verge of a breakdown. He is being eaten away by his close to incestuous relationship with his youngest daughter. His angst then becomes consumed by, and is reflected in, the greater tumult of the huge bushfires that start engulfing everyone and everything.

Matthew Lutton’s production gives Holloway’s new work an almost primal force. Certain scenes transfix the audience’s attention. Belinda McClory is mesmerising in a scene where she suddenly transforms into a frightening, hormone propelled teenage girl manically dancing across the stage, ironically using a bursting garden sprinkler on Adam Gardnir’s manicured green lawn, as her prop and adjunct. Loud, unnerving rock music pumps through the theatre’s speakers.

The play’s final scenes take place in hyper-reality, with the stage surrounded by ‘bushfire’ smoke and strobe lighting, as the flames and the emotions burn out of control.

Lutton wins committed, gruelling performances from his actors. The cast featured two of Australia’s finest dramatic actors in the leads, Colin Moody and Belinda McClory. Luke Hewitt played the vigilant Cop, and Kris McQuade and Arky Michael played the ensemble roles.

Matthew Lutton’s production of Tom Holloway’s ‘Love Me Tender’ plays upstairs at Belvoir Street until April 11, 2010.