Review: THAT EYE, THE SKY at Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Tuesday 28th August 2018.

In 1994, actor, Richard Roxburgh, and writer, Justin Monjo, adapted Tim Winton's 1986 novel, That Eye, The Sky, for the stage, and the State Theatre Company of South Australia have given it to director/choreographer, Kate Champion, to create a new performance. Roxburg and Monjo also adapted another of Winton's novels, Cloudstreet. Champion is primarily known for her work in dance and physical theatre. A film adaptation was also released in 1994, to mixed reviews, with a screenplay by John Ruane, who directed the film, and Jim Barton.

The first thing that one notices is the cast list, a veritable who's who of highly respected and popular artists, many of them seen regularly in State Theatre productions.

Morton 'Ort' Flack lives with his ex-hippies father, Sam, and mother, Alice, as well as his sixteen-year-old sister, Tegwyn, and his senile and doddery grandmother, for whom they act as carers. His best friend is James 'Fat' Cherry. He is twelve years of age but, having been in a coma at the age of three, following which he had to relearn to walk, learn language, and everything else, he is not as advanced as others of his age, which causes him more than usual anxiety about going to high school in the next year.

Te rather unpleasant Mr. Cherry loves to gamble, but Mrs. Cherry is opposed to that, so he gets Sam to go into town to place his bets for him. At the beginning of the play, Sam heads off to do just that, but crashes the vehicle and is badly injured, going into a coma. When he is eventually brought home to be cared for by the family, which is Alice's decision, he is in a vegetative state, and remains so for the entire play. Mrs. Cherry blames her husband for sending Sam to town, and their relationship goes downhill into a series of loud arguments.

A scruffy old tramp, Henry Warburton, is living under a nearby bridge, and he turns up at the Flack's home claiming that he has been sent by 'god' to help them, brainwashing them into believing, and baptising Alice and Ort in the river.

Ort is played by Tim Overton who begins by introducing his family and some of the concepts on which the play is based, delivered from a balcony, before moving to the stage where the others are initially half-seen behind a heavy scrim curtain. Overton brings a childlike naivety to the central role, and engenders an ongoing sense of hope in the face of all that is happening around him.

Sam Flack, who has only a brief appearance being sent off to town to place Mr. Cherry's bet, before spending the remainder of the play as a limp body, is played by Bill Allert, with Elena Carapetis as his wife, Alice. Playing a rag doll for a hundred minutes is no easy task, but Allert carries it off convincingly. Carapetis surpasses herself in a superb performance as the woman determined to care for the man she loves whilst also dealing with the needs of her two children, but not up to the task.

Kate Cheel is the ever-angry Tegwin, embracing her sexual awakening, and wanting to leave school to get a job, or simply to get away from her family. Cheel, like Overton, gives an authenticity to her role as a much younger person, with that petulance and attention seeking that many parents and teachers will recognise.

The Cherry's are played by Rory Walker and Michelle Nightingale, with Ezra Juanta as their son, Fat. Walker and Nightingale also briefly play preachers, and she plays the role of the grandmother, too. Even in these smaller roles, Champion has enlisted some very fine performers who equal those in the major roles.

Christopher Pitman plays Henry Warburton, his brain addled by his past use of drugs, using religion as an alternative fix, lusting after Tegwin and occasionally losing control. Pitman brings out all of the complexities and frailties of this damaged character.

Sadly, Geoff Cobham is moving on from his residency, making this his final set and lighting design for State Theatre. He is going to be very hard to replace. His set has a pool of water across the front of the stage to act as the riverbank, the rest in dark colours, with levels for the porch and the interior of the house, and with a layer of gravel everywhere. The Cherry's garage, where Sam had worked, is off to one side. Added to this is another of Cobham's intricate lighting designs, creating many moods and effects. Most importantly, though, is the sky, the sky that Ort perceives to be an eye, with a cloud over their house that only he can see. Cobham's last set and lighting designs of his residency will be long remembered.

This would seem to be a play for those who are very familiar with the book. Henry enters at one stage carrying a car wheel. If you have not read the book, you could be forgiven for not realising that this represented an entire car that he claims to have bought for the family. If you did know this, then you might be wondering why he then placed the wheel in the river. If you did not know about that representation and saw only a wheel, you might be wondering what was meant when he was later said to have stolen the car. When he and Tegwin walk offstage near the end, nothing explains that, in the book, they ran off together. These, and a few other points, made for some frustration with the script, or perhaps with the direction not bringing those important points into clarity.

The company's warning for this production states that, "That Eye, The Sky contains coarse language, nudity, live animals, and the use of electronic cigarettes", but don't worry, any proposed nudity has been cut, the cigarettes simply glow at the tip, with no fumes, the language is mild, compared to some recent productions, and you'll love the cute live animals.