The Marvellous Boy
By Louis Nowra
The Stables Theatre, Kings Cross
Until November 12
REVIEW BY BRENDAN DOYLE
In 1975, Juanita Nielson disappeared while campaigning against developers in Kings Cross. Her body was never found, although it is assumed she was murdered for standing in the way of real-estate profits. This is one of the themes that playwright Louis Nowra has woven into this story of Luke, the son of a developer, and his journey from ignorance to the truth about his father's ruthless lust for power, and his own vulnerability.
Nowra is perhaps best known for his plays and films such as Cosi, Radiance, Inside the Island and Capricornia. The Marvellous Boy, here given its world premiere production directed by David Berthold, is the second part of a trilogy that began last year with The Woman With Dog's Eyes, which introduced us to the dysfunctional Boyce family. I didn't see that production, but it set some all-time records for the Griffin company, which has nourished so many new Australian playwrights.
Luke, played by Toby Schmitz, youngest son of real-estate empire builder Malcolm Boyce (Danny Adcock), has the energy and arrogance of youth. He admires his father's ruthless single-mindedness and is loyal to him, even after witnessing a union official's vicious treatment on his father's orders. His father, who is dying of cancer and is desperate to complete his building project as a testament to his power, asks Luke to deal with the protesters trying to stop the project. Luke accepts, and is introduced to the scary Ray Pollard (Anthony Phelan), a heavy-drinking, coke-snorting standover man with a literary bent, a failing nightclub and a large bird collection. Ray's sidekick, brilliantly played by Bruce Spence, is Victor, a half-deranged deaf eccentric, who attends to Ray's every need, including hair-dyeing.
Enter Esther (Susie Lindeman), ex-mistress of Luke's father, who is a prime figure behind the protests against the development. Luke, unaware of the connection, is sent by Ray to woo her or win her over in some other way. Luke falls for the charms of the older woman, and the stage is set for a tangled tale of lust and desperate, vicious power-plays.
Nowra's admirable achievement is to incorporate recent historical events and real people into a fictional tale of intrigue, painful family relationships, politics and steamy passion that I found totally involving from the outset. He has created another memorable set of characters. Luke, the central character, is a smart, attractive risk-taker who learns the hard way about power and money and his own vulnerability and limitations. Ray, the hard-bitten fixer and reluctant hit-man, seems very much at home in the Kings Cross venue of the production. (Louis Nowra is a local resident.)
Victor is one of Nowra's most delightful characters. A highlight of the show is Spence miming the Billie Holliday song "You Don't Know What Love Is" into a whisky-bottle microphone.
Griffin has a great policy of $20 tickets for under-30s. Also, there's a pay-what-you-can for unsold tickets on Monday nights at 5.30pm. And look out for The Marvellous Boy when it travels later to other cities. I found it a marvellous night at the theatre.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, October 26, 2005.
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