Breanna Redhead

Melville Theatre has brought two thought-provoking performances to the stage in their latest double-bill offering, Escaped Alone and What If/If Only.

Both written by British playwright Caryl Churchill; each brings to the table deep themes of the human experience – that being catastrophe and grief.

Starting the night with Escaped Alone – director Lucy Eyre has brought together a strong group of four women whose chemistry excels on stage. Set over an afternoon tea, each woman reveals and grapples with their own personal form of catastrophe, leaning on each other to navigate their struggles.

Susan Lynch leads the group as Mrs Jarrett – dealing with PTSD as a survivor of a natural disaster. Her emotive asides are a driving force of the piece, and it’s evident she is pulling from raw emotion to bring the scripts to life.

Having later discovered that these scripts feature no punctuation, Lynch is to be commended for letting the actors really make it their own.

In her Melville Theatre debut, Caroline McDonnell is another standout as Vi, providing a raw authenticity to the role as she navigates family troubles.

Natalie Burbage and Suzannah Churchman nicely round out the group as Lena and Sally, respectively, bringing some light-hearted comedy to the show’s more serious tone.

With strong performances and a solid foundation, my only real qualm with this production was more a matter of the writing than this particular performance itself. Mrs Jarrett’s alluded trauma felt rather ambiguous and left both myself and my friend feeling a little lost at times, though we were still able to enjoy the show regardless.

What If/If Only was much more my speed. It offered a poignant 20-minute look into human grief and the spectrum of emotions that come with it.

The immediate clinical feel of the box-like set by Lars Jensen – mimicking the small acrylic box at the front of the stage – creates a strong impression, soon filled with the tableau of the characters within to make it feel as if we are watching some kind of study in a lab.

The stark black-and-white costuming provided by the cast further contributed to this idea.

Lucy Eyre is an anchor as the central nameless character who has experienced the loss of a loved one to suicide. She does well to simultaneously appear vacant in her grief-stricken state while also amplifying the range of emotions, questions and ‘what ifs’ people ask themselves when grappling with suicide in real-time.

Personifying said ‘what ifs’ is Jarrod Buttery as the flamboyant future, Clare Talbot as the spunky and matter-of-fact present, and Tanisha Mavunduse as the hopeful yet starkly realistic child future.

Props must go to both Lucy Eyre and Natalie Burbage for pulling together and executing two insightful performances that leave audiences questioning their own battles with emotion and looking internally to reflect on their own experiences.

To book tickets to Escaped Alone and What If If Only, please visit https://melvilletheatrecompany.au/current-production.

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.