Theatre Review: Laurinda

The Play: Laurinda

The Theatre: The Sumner Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company

Until: 10 September

Stars: 3

It's been a cracker of a season at the Melbourne Theatre Company. So much good theatre to enjoy, so many pieces of solid entertainment to provoke thought and feeling. 

Unfortunately, Laurinda was not one of those plays. This is not to say that this was a bad play - it just wasn't quite up to the standard we've come to expect this year. And it's also not a play I'd walk out on. It's just that this one felt a little amateurish. 

So hear me out. 

Alice Pung's novel of the same name is well loved, telling the story of Lucy Lam, of Vietnamese extraction, a smart kid from a not-so-great suburb who wins a scholarship to an exclusive private girls school. Lucy sticks out for lots of reasons - the scholarship kid has to face off with the rich, entitled kids in her year. She faces racism and classism along with the horrendous nature of 15-year-old girls.

I really enjoyed the novel, which I read in preparation for this. I went along with Jay, who hadn't done the prepatory reading, and she said she was getting a bit lost at times - and I can get why. Jay put it well - this production did feel a bit like a high school production - and she's right - it did feel at times as if it were being put on as a part of a Year 12 final production - sometimes it felt a overacted and twee - other times there were flashes of brilliance. 

And then you have to balance it up that this with the fact that this is a play about teenage girls - and as we all know, they have few, if any, redeeming features. 

It's also early days for this production, as it opened this week. The cast are fresh out. They don't have the regular nightly notes yet - so I'll give them some slack for that. 

But what this misses from the book is the nuanced relationships Lucy has with the school, her family and her local community, which is so beautifully drawn in the book, but doesn't translate to the stage. Petra Kalive and Diana Nguyen's script is fun and fast paced, but it misses out on the heart which is found in the book. Kalive's direction is adequate and mostly on point. The minimalist set was put to good use, but the audiovisuals were a little disappointing. 

What was most irritating was what was kept from the book versus what was left out. The two teachers in the book were amalgamated into one - which at times, didn't make sense. Lucy's home life was only touched on, where it's an integral part of the book. And Mrs Grey, a menacing figure in the book wasn't that scary. 

What I did like, however, was the mostly Asian cast. Where in the book, the characters are mainly Anglo-Australians, in this rendition, all of the characters were played by Asian actors. As it is blatantly stated early in the play, "What, an Asian playing a white Aussie? Get over it!" And that I did. This gave the play a really interesting overlay. It was, at times, thought provoking. 

So a mixed bag for this one. I think lovers of the book will be a bit disappointed, but it certainly wasn't the worst play I've seen. Maybe if I'd seen it a few more weeks into the run the experience would have been different. 

Today's song: