Production: The Heartbreak Choir
Melbourne Theatre Company
Southbank Theatre
Until 28 May.
I mourn the loss of Aiden Fennessy more than any other playwright. I mourn the loss of the plays he will never write. It is gutwrenching to know that Fennessy never got to see this marvel of a play on stage - he passed away as this was going into production in 2020. As a playwright, Fennessy wrote about the quirks of Australia with a loving eye, a lot of intelligence and a larrakin sense of humour. His play, The Architect, is one of my most favourite ever Melbourne Theatre Company productions. Three years on, I still think about it regularly.
The Heartbreak Choir is of a similar calibre. Okay, it doesn't quite have the same punch of The Architect, but it is an incredibly heart felt, heart warming, funny, well observed two hours and ten minutes of theatre.
The play takes place in a Country Fire Association hall in a small town in Victoria. This group of ratbags have broken off from the town's choir which become apparent over the course of the play. The characters come to sing, and to heal. There's Barbara, the leader of the splinter group, a psychologist, holding on to a number of screts. There's Totty (Louise Silversen), the town mover and shaker who can make anything happen. Adding to the group is Sam (Carita Ferrer Spencer) a loudmouth, bogan mother mother and her nearly catatonic daughter Savannah (Emily Milledge). Rounding off the group is Aseni (Ratidzo Mambo), who's new to the district and very pregnant, and is welcomed with open arms into the community. And Peter (William McInnes) a cop who's very much tied into the secret as to why the group have left main choir.
What got me about this is the way life in a small country town in drawn. Everything is completely on point, from the situations to the small town sensibilties to the way small towns get under your skin.
This is also a play of how a community breaks down to heal. The tragedy of what went on in the background is superceded by how the choir members band together to help each other out.
Peter Houghton's direction is assured and keeps the action moving at a pace. You're never quite sure what's going to happen next, which is a part of this play's charms. You're always asking yourself what will happen next - and what actually happened to take the group away.
For me, the vest part of this outstanding play was the set, which if you've ever lived in a country town, you will recognise, for the insufficient heating, the clogging drains, the dead possum in the roof and the underused stage. Coming from a small country town, they could have shipped the Myponga Town Hall onto the set. It was a lovely piece of nostalgia.
Oh, and the limited singing in the play is magic. It made me want to go join a choir - even though I can't carry a tune in a bucket.
This is on at the Sumner Theatre until 25 May. It comes highly recommended.
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