The Boy on the Roof
By Allan Mackay
Directed by Bryan Cutts
Dispensary Cafe, 84 Enmore Rd, Newtown (Sydney)
Until April 20
Reviewed by Brendan Doyle
If you haven't yet visited Newtown's newest and friendliest performance cafe, the Dispensary, then this could be a good excuse. The Boy on the Roof tells the nail-biting story of Mickey, who used to be a schoolboy football hero, but found after leaving school that he couldn't deal with the stress of living in the real world.
No longer star of the footy field, and dumped by his girlfriend Julie, Mickey takes his father's rifle and holds siege on the roof of a city building. Police sharpshooters have him in their sights.
Dean, a friend and football rival from school days, is sent up to talk him down, with harrowing results. Flashbacks show some of the events that drove Mickey to despair. Can Dean talk some sense into Mickey? Or will the unpredictable Mickey do what he has threatened? Don't reveal the shock ending to your friends!
Joseph Williams gives a convincing and powerful performance as Mickey, nimbly moving down a ladder during the blackouts from his rooftop to floor level for the flashbacks. Juan Modinger as Dean has the intensity required but needs to modulate his shouting, I felt. Yvette Tattam is suitably angry as the pissed-off girlfriend.
The play runs less than an hour, which is about as long as this sort of tension can be sustained. After the dramatic finale you can relax over a focaccia or cake with a free cappuccino — the best in Enmore Road — in the cafe's relaxed atmosphere.
The Boy on the Roof had a successful season at the Stables Theatre in 1987. Writer Allan Mackay was moved to write the play after a real-life siege in Melbourne in 1985, when a young man on a shopping centre roof fired on shoppers below. This sort of "senseless" violence has become a familiar feature of our society, in which so many individuals are alienated and isolated from meaningful social and personal relationships.
Dispensary Cafe offers affordable entertainment in a relaxed venue. The show runs till April 20. For details phone 557 7499.