The subject of local playwright Debra Oswald’s play ‘The Peach Season’ is love. It describes a paternal, protective love that seeks to protect the loved one from any harm, from the darker side of life.

Celia (Marika Aubrey), a mature woman in her forties, has seen enough of this side of life already. She lost her husband early, after he was tragically killed when he was an innocent bystander of a bungled armed robbery. She decides to leave Sydney and raise her young daughter, Zoe (Laura Davies ), on an isolated peach farm that she took over. Zoe is now a vibrant 16 year old young woman and is showing signs of wanting to ‘stretch her wings’. Zoe falls for Kieran (Samuel Faull), a young guy who, along with his older sister Sheena (Caroline Kemp), are working as itinerant fruit pickers on Celia’s property. When Celia learns that Kieran has a police record and is wanted on a few outstanding warrants, she does everything within her powers to break the couple apart. She can’t bear to see her daughter taking risks with her life.

The northside Phoenix Theatre Company are currently performing a season of Oswald’s poignant play, that premiered at the Stables theatre in 2006 in a highly regarded production directed by David Berthold. For Phoenix, 2007 NIDA graduate Jessica Tuckwell takes the director’s chair.

Tuckwell sensitively directs the play that is universal in its appeal. Everyone can relate to the desire to be protective of those we love. The actors are well cast, playing authentic and contrasting characters with conviction. Theatre Nepean graduate Marika Aubrey is concerned mum, Celia, fearing the worst for Zoe. Laura Davies, a HSC performing arts student, plays zesty Zoe, trying to burst free from her mother’s control. Christine Greenough is Celia’s good natured sometimes over the top neighbour Dorothy who is also the play’s narrator. Ben Jobbern plays her straight laced lawyer son, Joe, who is under the thumb in an unhappy marriage. Samuel Faull plays the good hearted but troubled Kieran. Caroline Kemp is Kieran’s brazen, straight-shooting but level headed older half sister, Sheena.

There are some striking scenes in Christopher Streit’s lighting design, and Tessa Richardson’s symbolic set with suspended building flotsam, pallets of peach boxes and fairy lights resonant of bright outback stars worked well.

This revival of ‘The Peach Season’ plays the Zenith theatre, Railway Street, Chatswood until Saturday July 25.