The main character in American playwright Jen Silverman’s play THE ROOMMATE is Sharon a middle aged woman who is recently divorced and feeling unfilled and listless. She decides to advertise for a roommate. The play starts with the arrival of her new roommate, the also middle aged Robyn. Robyn plonks her suitcases down, Sharon puts on the coffee, and they sit down for a chat.
It soon becomes apparent that here are two very different women. That they live in two different towns seems to have something to do with it. Sharon is from the sleepy town of Idaho, Robyn from the hyperactive Bronx. Sharon is pleasant, and conservative. Robyn is prickly, and given to criminal activities. She speaks of scamming people. Robyn rolls a joint on the kitchen table. After much hesitation Sharon has a few puffs. It is play on!
As the play evolves, it goes in a way that one doesn’t expect. Robyn reveals more of her dark side, and Sharon becomes obsessed, even infatuated, with her. One day she comes home one day bragging that she has just stolen from someone. Things continue to escalate. How far is Sharon going to descend?
My favourite scene, for me the play’s quintessential scene, is when Sharon, so stricken with embarrassment at the things she has been doing, hides from Robyn by going under the kitchen table. It is as if she has regressed, and has become herself as a girl, hiding from her parents after having misbehaved.
With hindsight I am thinking that this is what the playwright is wanting us to look at with this work. Sharon has lived her life with a clear rule book in mind which has given her a lot of security. Now that she sees herself becoming morally adrift, Sharon’s journey is to become the author of her own rule book, and not one that has been given to her. To become fully adult, albeit well in to middle age…
Director Lee Lewis’ production, (Assistant Director Jules Billington) is a strong one. Together with her designers – Simone Romaniuk’s set and costumes, Matt Cox’s lighting and Madeleine Picard’s soundscape, they create a cavernous stage world for the two actresses to work in.
From her first entrance, Lucy Bell is captivating as the bright, shiny Sharon whose headspace is is going to change much more dramatically than her room space. Belinda Bromilow is also captivating, playing the morose, amoral Robyn whose character has more depth than that which one first envisages.
Silverman’s play is a difficult, controversial play and it is brave for the Ensemble theatre to be putting it on. This is the kind of play that will attract many different responses from theatregoers. Some will dismiss it outright, seeing it as condoning criminal activity. Others, like me, will see it as interesting and insightful.Go see the play yourself and see where you land.
An Australian premiere production, Jen Silverman’s THE ROOMMATE, directed by Lee Lewis, is playing the Ensemble theatre until the 25th July 2026.
