BEETLE GRADUATION - ADELAIDE THEATRE GUIDE REVIEW

by Richard Flynn

As its name suggests, Brink is in the business of presenting ‘edgy’ theatre and this play – Beetle Graduation, one in a trilogy by Australian writer Susan Rogers - is challenging stuff indeed.

There is probably no richer nor more difficult subject than that of the relationship between a mother and daughter. Mother and son, father and daughter, father and son, all pale in comparison, though they are, of course, well-mined subjects in their own right.

For the mother is both the bearer, for nine months the exclusive nurturer of the child and, as the daughter grows, is seen by the mother as a rival for the love of the husband/father. And in the eyes of the father, the daughter grows to become the living reminder of what the mother/wife used to be. It is a situation ripe for jealous rages, tears and demands, then, just as suddenly, smothering protection, child talk and child games. The imagery of a cicada emerging from its shell is evoked.

Over it all, the mother is dying. She has to face the reality of her death, but the daughter too has to come to terms with that - and her own life, and life without mother. Anger, frustration, denial, attempts at escape. How to use the limited time we all have. “Connecting before it is too late” as Rogers notes.

Fresh from outstanding performances in the broad sweeping When the Rain Stops Falling, an Adelaide Festival hit earlier this year, the two players – Carmel Johnson (Mother) and Michaela Cantwell (Miranda, the daughter, nicknamed Beetle) – are about as good as it gets. One minute, they’re women aged 65 and 40, then - without an obvious gear change, often until it has happened - they are aged 32 and 7. If you blink you can miss it, it’s that clever.

Director Chris Drummond says that he has pared back the performance elements. No broad sweep here. The result is a fluid transition from time to time and from place to place. A single chair, a red stole, a carpeted square, both players on stage throughout the 70 minutes – with superb, constantly changing lighting by Geoff Cobham and a live, interactive soundscape by composer DJ Trip. The result is seamless. And deceptively simple.

When the mother dies, it is the moment of her daughter’s ‘graduation’, the event towards which she has been building. It is both extremely sad as well as wonderfully right.