REVIEW: Hilary Bell's SUMMER OF HAROLD Is A Captivating Trio Of Short Plays That Contemplate The Power Of Seemingly Simple Objects

Tuesday 12st September 2023, 8:15pm, Ensemble Theatre

Director Francesca Savige delivers three distinct performances for Hillary Bell’s SUMMER OF HAROLD, ENFANT TERRIBLE, and LOOKOUT, collectively billed under the first work.  With two performers, four characters and three objects, captivatingly personal connections to objects are expressed with clarity and comedy.

Set designer Jeremy Allen provides a common space for the stories to be told.  The span of the rear wall of the Ensemble Theatre, reaching up to flank the auditorium seats, is transformed into a series of tall timber shelves of varying size, the kind that used to adorn houses of the early 1980’s to display various objet d’art.  Allen’s shelves each house single items that range from Corning ware baking dishes, teddy bears, sports equipment, figurines, paintings, and much more.  A rotating sign allows each story to be headlined and Matt cox’s lighting design highlights the items that relate to the story. 

While SUMMER OF HAROLD and ENFANT TERRIBLE are monologues, presented by Hannah Waterman and Berynn Schwerdt respectively, the pair share the stage for LOOKOUT.  With the addition of minimal props, Savige ensures that each of Bell’s stories are unique, containing a different energy and underlying emotion.  Waterman gives SUMMER OF HAROLD’s Janet a bright glee as she remembers the summer she, and her fellow antipodean backpacker, worked as housekeepers for the famous Harold Pinter, bluffing their way through the cooking and cleaning for the famous playwright and his second wife in their Holland Park home.  Conversely, Schwerdt presents Gareth with a maniacal menace as the ceramicist that has been holding onto a grudge since Art School who may have finally done something to get his name in the news, though maybe not quite the publicity he was after.  For LOOKOUT Schwerdt is Jonathan, a 40-year-old socially awkward man and Waterman is Rae, the woman who for many years had been the focal point of his life and they have one final conversation as Jonathan tries to move on in a piece presented with tender emotion and loving care.

At 90 minutes all up, these are lovely little pieces of theatre that are packed full of energy and emotion while containing the underlying contemplation of the power that objects have over our lives.  An intriguing concept for theatre combined with brilliant performances and an incredibly detailed set that has you wishing that there were more than three stories as surely the other pieces have stories as well.

SUMMER OF HAROLD - Ensemble Theatre

Photos: Jaimi Joy