Clare Mendes’ current play “Skating In the Clouds”, directed by Emily Farrell, brings her passion for saving the environment to the fore but also shows her passion for people and relationships. Two years in the making, with assistance from a Malcolm Robertson grant, Mendes explores the responses we make, as individuals, as generations and as a society to that big topic, climate change.
I say “we” because, through the actors on stage, we see ourselves represented. Summer and Autumn, in solid performances by Katrina Mathers and Rebecca Morton, are like two sides of a coin. Together, they are facing a world that is changing, but they have opposing coping mechanisms. Autumn, a scientist, wants to fix it but despairs at her inability to get to the root cause. Summer would rather hide in her daydreams, imagining a perfect future unaffected by such changes, yet the truth hits her in small moments every day. How will they navigate the future together? Can they reconcile their differences?
The play makes more sense when viewed as a morality play, with the symbolically-named Summer and Autumn together being our Every(wo)man (or Every person). Described as a “magic-realist romp”, there is a disconnect from a specific time and place. The beautifully simple set by Bianca Pardo is timeless, and despite Melbourne’s locations being mentioned, we imagine it to be in the clouds. Whilst we are told that our ladies are turning 70 in 2040, we don’t feel like we are fully in 2024 either. Props are oversized. It’s all very dreamy.
Performers El Kiley and Shamita Sivabalan ably support the action with youthful energy in scenes that punctuate the main storyline. Their physical embodiment of various characters reveal different societal responses to the climate crisis: politicians, journalists and rich corporate workers as examples.
For me, the highlight of the play was the confrontation scene between Mathers’ Summer, and Sivabalan, playing Summer’s daughter, Toby. After the discussion of ideas that dominate Summer and Autumn’s conflict in the previous scenes, we finally see raw emotions we can relate to. Summer has to face her fears for her daughter and mourns the simplicity of life when she was young; she wonders how we got into this mess that includes the overproduction of disposables. Toby believes herself and her generation innocent and rages against the undeserved burden, directing it at her mother. But the argument is pointless. The problem remains and mother and daughter must find hope for the future by finding small ways they can contribute to change. The passion in this scene has stayed with me, both its rage and its hope, and is a testament to the writing and the performances of the actors.
The lighting design by Natalia Velasco Moreno and the sound design by Sharyn Brand supported the action effectively but, along with all the creative team including set/costume, actors and movement (Lucy Payne) I would have liked to have seen more of their stamp on the whole production. The amount of talent in the creative team is immense, and the “magic-realism” element could have been leaned into even more, allowing the story and its deeper emotional meanings to unfold in the spaces between the words.
“Skating in the Clouds” is on at Theatreworks, Acland St, St Kilda, until Saturday, December 14th.
To book tickets, please visit https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2024/skating-in-the-clouds
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.
