There’s good reason why Christine Harris and HIT Productions, Australia’s premiere theatre touring company, have chosen Australian writer David Stevens’s play THE SUM OF US as one of this year’s touring productions. Stevens’s evergreen play (first performed off Broadway in July 1990 with great success- over 300 performances, and later made famous with the film version, also written by Stevens, and starring Jack Thompson and the just emerging Russell Crowe) has so much going for it.
Most of all, I loved the play’s authentic feel. Sometimes I’m at the theatre and I’m looking at the characters and situations happening on stage, and they just don’t feel real. They’ve lost me straight away! Not with THE SUM OF US.
Right from the start of Denis Moore’s production I believed this world; the quirky, rather daft but huge hearted father (John Jarrett) who dominates and shocks everyone around him- not so much his lonely, gay son (Patrick Harvey), but more his son’s potential boyfriend (Glenn Van Oosteron) and his potential partner (Nell Feeney). Jarrett apparantly took over the role from Steve Bisley and is making the most of the meaty lead role.
I love it when playwrights break the fourth wall and have their main characters, at times, address the audience directly with their thoughts. (One only has to remember that the greatest playwright of them all, the Bard, frequently used this technique to great effect). John Jarrett and Patrick Harvey perform their asides with ease and skill.
THE SUM OF US is a serious and edgy play in many ways, with its over-arching themes of tolerance and unconditional love, and the playwright balances this well by using plenty of humour and dialogue replete with one-liners and clever puns.
I saw this entertaining and touching production whilst it was playing NIDA’s Parade Theatre. The show has since moved on, and tonight opens at the wonderful Glen Street theatre in Belrose. The show will play Glen Street until Saturday 20th August. From there, I understand, it will continue on tour until mid November, 2011.
David Kary
Tuesday 9th August, 2011
Tags: THE SUM OF US, Hit Productions, David Stevens, Nell Feeney, Patrick Harvey, John Jarrett, Glenn Van Oosterom, National tour