Title: Play Solace for the lonely
Date: Friday, September 14, 2007
Publication: The Mercury
Author: Robert Jarman
Details: Beyond the Neck, Tasmania Performs, Peacock Theatre.
Body of text:
Taking as it’s springboard the Port Arthur Massacre of 10 years ago, Tom Holloway’s play Beyond the Neck is, as one character says, “a tour of loss and violence”.
Each of four lonely people has been visited by horror. Each finds some solace in the comfort of strangers, at Port Arthur itself.
But it is not merely their meeting that brings about a fragile redemption. It is also the presence of the audience, for above all, this play is a meditation on our common grief and isolation, and on the redemptive power of connection and of theatre itself. It is an act of faith.
The production has a beautiful cohesion. It all looks and feels top notch.
The tone is cool, sometimes too cool. A few moments are curiously underplayed, though whether out of deference to the sensitivity of the material, or some artistic consideration, I cannot say.
It seems destined for a longer life (how handsomely it would sit on the stage of Sydney’s prestigious Belvoir Street Theatre, a space for which it could have been designed).
The Hobart season is sold out, though an extra performance has been scheduled for Saturday night. Book this morning, because you won’t be able to get a ticket this afternoon.
