Review: MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON from How Now Brown Cow is on at the Baxter

Review by Sue Diepeveen on behalf of Faeron Wheeler.

As How Now Brown Cow presents us with their new piece of theatre, we are reminded of their commitment to excellence in everything that they do. The SA premier of MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON, starring Julie-Ann McDowell, is such a piece.

This is a story of a sick young woman in a hospital bed being visited by her estranged mother. As she fights for her life physically, she is also fighting for her life emotionally and this interaction shows the pain and the growth of this journey.

The play is beautifully designed by Kieran McGregor and the clean lines and sparseness add to the clinical feel of the realm of the hospital, while the projections and soundscape transports us into spaces in the imagination as she shares her journey with us. The stripping away of the set to its basic form mirrors the stripping away of the layers to reveal Lucy’s vulnerability.

Her journey itself is, of course, unique; as not many of us land up being acclaimed authors, but the background is one that many people can identify with. It highlights that sense of unfulfillment many feel in relationships which do not quite meet with expectation. I pondered on how the character’s expectations of life were so much more than they ought to have been, considering the start she was given; how is it that instinctively we know that we need so much more, and that a simple touch being the only affection shown can catapult one into a quagmire of feelings and confusions?

Directed by Charmaine Weir-Smith, this piece encapsulates the frail bond of the two main characters as McDowell moves effortlessly between mother and daughter.  The mother’s crass natures brings us some natural comic relief, as we get glimpses of a woman who knows that she tried and failed, and that there is no fixing it. The physicality of this character was a natural fit for McDowell and her abrasive tone a perfect foil for the reaction to it displayed as Lucy absorbed it all like a sponge. McDowell had the audience spellbound for the duration of the play as she fit the Lucy character like a glove, leaving the audience with thoughts and feelings long after the curtain fell.

The tone of the piece feels the same as the book it is based on by well-known author Elizabeth Strout and the adaptation by Rona Munro manages to portray the same essence as the book does in it’s reading thereof.  The cast and crew have honoured that tone which leaves the audience satiated and fulfilled.

MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON is on at the Baxter until 5 October. Tickets are available via webtickets.

Photo credit: Daniel Rutland Manners

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