Actor – Jane Phegan
Photographer – Clare Hawley

It takes no time at all to warm to Jane Phegan’s performance in Noëlle Janaczewska’s poetic and potent monologue, THE END OF WINTER.

Sat mostly atop a sinking house, submerged by rising sea levels due to melting ice caps, Phegan weaves Janaczewska’s words into a poignant presentation of the personal and private, her winter tale of loss and grief the tip of the iceberg with the bummock posited as political ill will scuppering science. The eternal titanic struggle.

THE END OF WINTER is an acclamation of the chilly season- with an author named Noëlle, how could it be otherwise?- written with a fervour for the frigid, the frosty and the frozen, performed with cool assurance but with a palpable fire in the belly about impending climatic catastrophe.

Janaczewska’s script is part sensory, part scientific, part history, totally literate and humongously heartfelt. The history is fascinating, arctic and antarctic anecdote cutting a swathe through the story’s arc.

Scott and Amundsen are mentioned, of course, but lesser known expeditionists – Polynesian polar explorers, and Japanese journeyers who based camped in Parsley Bay- are given their due in this delicious delivery of uncovered facts.

Subtle direction by Kate Gaul, a simple set by Soham Apte and an atmospheric soundscape by Kaitlyn Crocker and co-composer Nate Edmondson give added texture to the lyrical writing and eloquent performance.

Glacial flow used to mean slow but climatic change has increased the pace and, likewise, the hour spent with Phegan’s mastery of Janaczewska’s text certainly flies by.

THE END OF WINTER by Noëlle Janaczewska

Season4 February – 12 February
Filmed Performance 9 February

Performance Times
Monday – Friday, 7pm
Saturday 2pm & 7pm
Griffin Theatre Company
13 Craigend Street
Kings Cross, NSW, 2011

boxoffice@griffintheatre.com.au
(02) 9361 3817