Review: MR BAILEY'S MINDER at St. Jude's Hall, Brighton

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Thursday 3rd August 2023.

You may know that St Jude is the patron saint of lost causes and St Jude’s players have taken on Mr Bailey’s Minder, by Australian playwright, Debra Oswald, a play seemingly about a lost cause.

Do we make allowance for genius? Should we? Do some people get away with vicious and irresponsible actions, hurting all around them, because they are great artists, like Leo Bailey? Is it too late ever to forgive, even without forgetting? Vicky Horwood’s sensitive direction keeps you watching and, eventually, caring about the lives on stage.

The story is sentimental, without being mawkish, as recently released from prison, Therese, takes one last shot at a job and a roof over her head, and Leo’s daughter, Margo, a successful businesswoman, has another desperate chance at finding a live-in carer for her alcoholic and, let's face it, vicious father. She’s the only one of his many children who will put in the effort and she’s run out of patience.

Andrew Horwood is outstanding as the artist, Leo Bailey. The days of his genius are past. Through his alcoholic haze, he’s realised that his time has run out and, somehow, deep inside, he needs to make up for lost time. He is infuriating, and the alcohol masks what are the early stages of some form of dementia.

Into this crumbling house, significantly built into a cliff face overlooking Port Jackson Bay, comes Karl, a ‘tradie’ whose business was wrecked by a dishonest partner. He’s trying, like the others, to make a future.

Leah Lowe is Therese and she’s totally engaging, though lacking the rough edge an older woman might bring to the role, and Joanne St Clair catches Margo’s conflicted loyalties expertly. Hal Bruce is a shy Karl, fascinated by the house and the company, who starts turning up to be part of this eccentric house, with paintings, murals and, if you look carefully, spears thrust into the ceiling. He also has a two-minute cameo in the first act as Gary, a con artist, who gets Leo to sign blank pieces of paper. Bailey is still a name in the arts world.

Just remember though, that the play is called Mr Bailey’s Minder and Therese’s growing confidence in her ability to care for, manage, and maintain Leo, who’s really a monster, let's face it, immature and demanding. She’ll survive him and there’s the feeling that she’s on a new path. The other minder is his daughter, Margo. When she was six, he painted her as The Laughing Girl, a lost work frequently referenced as one of Leo’s masterpieces.  Oswald gives Margo the closing moments of the play. The painting is unearthed and unrolled. Margo sits with her six-year-old self as the lights go down.

Oswald’s play was last seen in Adelaide in 2012, thanks to the Stirling Players. It’s now experiencing something of a revival. It is currently on stage in Sydney.  John Gaden takes the title role for the Ensemble Theatre, bringing an inescapable resonance of King Lear. Guild Theatre, Rockdale presented it only a few weeks ago. Looking at cast photos was educational. If you cast as Therese an older woman, who looks gaunt and desperate as her criminal career might suggest, her interaction with the artist becomes sharper. If the role of Karl is taken by an older man, again heavily worn by his partner’s betrayal, his diffidence in approaching Therese becomes more intense. Neither of these two characters has more than one last chance at something good. The play leaves you guessing, and caring.