Fracture, the penultimate work in the current season at Perth’s Blue Room Theatre, is the first work from emerging playwright and WAAPA student Lucy Clements. Directed by the ubiquitous Joe Lui, Fracture examines the aftermath of familial trauma and the isolation that can result from grief.
It’s been roughly twenty-four hours since I stepped out of the theatre having watched Fracture and I’m still not completely sure how I feel about it. There was quite a bit about the show that I liked, but also a number of things that didn’t sit too well with me – albeit a number of them quite trivial. The difficulty is that there are a few things that are going to be hard to talk about without spoilers, so be warned!
Though I can’t go any further without mentioning Patrick Howe’s tremendous set, a full scale recreation of a suburban kitchen diner come living room; replete with electricity and running water. Though this is where my first trivial annoyance comes in as well. The fridge worked, the water worked, the light switch worked; why then couldn’t the kettle work. Presumably it was partly a time constraint, and nobody wants to sit there watching a kettle boil. But when you’re aiming for realism, that smallest thing proved to be a bit of an annoyance. Ridiculous I know! That being said clearly a lot of time and effort went into set design and dressing, more than I would expect from a show that is only running for a week.
The reason why I’m still a conflicted as to my thoughts on the play was its ending; or rather the last ten or so minutes. Running at about 55 minutes Fracture is by no means a long play. But for the first 40 or so minutes I just didn’t find it all that interesting. The characters though portrayed well, just didn’t really grab my attention; and in the case of the three principal characters their relationships were, well unclear at best.
And then comes the twist! And all of a sudden my interest is piqued. Elements that didn’t really seem to make sense before, that seemed like continuity errors or sloppy writing suddenly are given greater meaning and clarity. Suddenly these three twenty-something housemates don’t have personal space issues anymore, suddenly they’re three parts of the same person. Suddenly even the name of the play takes on a greater meaning.
But the dilemma I’m faced with is; does this clever conclusion negate what I felt was a largely underwhelming forty minutes or so? On the one hand I think yes, because it made me quickly revisit the play in my head and realise that there were tell tale signs there (maybe if I had more coffee before the show I might have picked up on them quicker). My initial thought was that I would perhaps have liked the twist of the denouement to come sooner; but at the same time I think it works coming so late in the play, any sooner and I feel the ending would have been too protracted and drawn out.
My other minor criticism of the work was the use of sound and music in the piece. At times I felt it was a bit of a distraction, and ultimately altered the meaning and context of some of the scenes – specifically the scene where the ex fiancé enters the house for the first time; the background music for that scene only served to make it seem much more sinister and for me needlessly upped the tension. Also I felt the use of simulated cricket sound was a bit unnecessary, it was clear the character had just woken up from a nightmare; I didn’t really need cricket sounds to remind me that it was the middle of the night. Nor did I think a song at the end of the play was really needed either, but that’s just my opinion. Sometimes less is more, and silence can be just an effective tool as background music.
The show has already sold out almost the entirety of its short run at the Blue Room so if you do want to get a ticket you better act fast. On the whole I think it is definitely worth a watch. It was a good show; it just wasn’t a great show. But for a debut piece I was largely impressed, there were a few little things that bothered me, but the majority of them didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the piece. It’s safe to say I’m interested to see what Clements comes up with next; and indeed what will become of Fracture.
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Fracture is performing now at The Blue Room Theatre until June 27th. For more information and tickets please visit: http://blueroom.org.au/events/fracture/
The reviewer attending the Opening Night performance on June 23rd.
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