Theatre Review - Fury - Sydney Theatre Company 2013 season

Harry Greenwood and Sarah Peirse on stage

Playwright Joanna Murray-Smith's new commissioned work for the Sydney Theatre Company is impressive, however there is a feel to this play that perhaps further polishing of the script would not go amiss.The story is focussed on the characters of Alice (a medical scientist and humanitarian award recipient), Patrick (a successful if slow producing novelist) and their son Joe who is still at high school. Alice and Patrick's comfortable, inner-city, politically-correct, safe, intelligensia focussed existence is thrown into turmoil when Joe is accused of graffitiing a mosque. Concurrently a young student journalist, Rebecca is also seeking to interview Alice regarding her humanitarian award and yet there is something more to many of Rebecca's questions. In the ensuing controversy, some of the secret personal history of Alice and Patrick during their younger protest years is thrown into sharp relief with uncomfortable questions arising as to their own motives, beliefs and most tellingly, methods. The script masterfully provides contrasts between Joe and his parents, between Patrick and Alice versus the parents of another boy (also accused of being involved in the mosque incident) and with the student journalist Rebecca. Sarah Peirse (as Alice), Robert Menzies (as Patrick), and Harry Greenwood (as Joe) provide a solid base for the central family characters with an element of latte-sipping, Chardonnay-quaffing for the parents. Set design is minimalist white and sheer. The only weakness of this one-act play is potential over emphasis and repetition in the monologues of the central characters. Meanings are captured effectively across the script and require little further elucidation.