This was a worthy and focussed presentation of a challenging play, mixing humour with teenage angst, and framed within alternating worlds. That would challenge many companies and casts, but the Pulteney Year 12 Drama production met the demands squarely and convincingly.
Set in the 1970s, shy Greta Driscoll arrives at a new school and is confronted with peer nastiness, among her other coming-of age concerns, while her family prepares a 15th birthday party for her. While taking time away from the party, her youthful experiences and fears are amplified by a trip to an alternative universe replete with frightening Nordic hunters. The play follows her path through those terrors. It is not, however, a horror show. There are many lighter, indeed very funny, moments in the course of the action.
In this production experienced Director Jamie Hibbert demonstrated her knowledge of theatre and her effectiveness in bringing out a strong performance and clear conceptual understanding from her cast. They handled their major roles with skill and showed admirable adaptability when, in most cases, they performed multiple characters. All of those changes and the related complexity were managed smoothly and adroitly. Some of their flamboyant 70s’ characters, costumed to perfection as they were, really hit the mark.
In the central role of Greta, Zoe Brennan presented us with a likeable, credible, searching and vulnerable fourteen year old, not quite ready to emerge from her childhood. She was effective in showing that Greta was susceptible to others’ wishes, yet through her out-of-this-world experiences she came to assert her independence. She handled the tensions of the role with natural ease, and had some delightfully awkwardly adolescent moments with others, including her parents and sister, her new – and only – friend Elliott and the students who taunted her at school and her party, Jasper and Jade.
Maddy Wehner was impressive as Greta’s older sister, Genevieve. She had all the style and attitude of the rebellious teenager, happily challenging her parents and for the most part, putting her younger sibling back in her place. Further, she was effective later in the play in a sensitive scene with Greta, she presented us with a strong contrast to her earlier sassiness.
Charlie Zorkovic and Billy Rowan were a contrasting pair as Greta’s parents, Conrad and Janet. Zorkovic was a convincingly ineffective father, readily dominated by his wife, yet bravely dealing with family life by trotting out occasional ‘dad jokes’, to the scorn of the others. He also played the goblin, in Greta’s dream world, as agile and Gollum-like, and subtly revealed his underlying real-world character when the time came. Billy Rowan readily took our attention as the domineering, self-obsessed Janet. She skilfully showed the characteristics of a mother who knows best, and forges ahead with what she believes are her good ideas, despite others’ opinions or needs. Hers was an arresting performance.
Quinn Sage-Hoff and Izzy Tribe played the spiteful schoolyard twins, Jasper and Jade, with considerable flair. In their different ways, they both displayed the underlying self-doubts of that type of manipulators. They both had significant secondary roles, and did well with them. Tribe’s Finnish Greta was stylised and very funny, while Sage-Hoff showed his stagecraft and adaptability as the empathetic Hudra.
Henry Tran was wonderful as the gawky, self-effacing Elliott. He used his broad theatre experience to effect in the role, with strong characterisation, awareness of the space, and a well-developed sense of working with the other characters in the ensemble. Further, he showed precise comic timing and expanded on the humour with engaging facial expression.
Adele Binns, in the cameo role of Little Greta, was poised and charming, adding an important dimension to the storyline.
All of the cast were able to demonstrate their characters’ development in he course of the action, and those with monologues were focussed and expressive. Their ensemble work was well developed and was key to the play’s success. They held the audience’s attention from the beginning, drawing laughs and gasps through the play and well-deserved sustained applause at the close.
