Ray of light

Australian writing, for theatre and for film, has often been criticised as lacking depth and subtlety and this is frequently claimed to be the result of insufficient time spent in development. This is a criticism that cannot be directed at Ray’s Tempest.

The play began its life in 1994 as the idea of Richard Roxburgh and Justin Monjo, a redemption story inspired by the life and work of American writer Raymond Carver. Monjo wrote the first draft as a musical and it was workshopped in 1995. Life intervened and the project lapsed, but Steve Rodgers, who had been part of the workshopping process, found himself unable to let go of the play, “it kept gnawing at me”. He asked permission to write his own version and spent some three years, “on and off”, working on it. Urged on by friends and family he wrote a second draft but had difficulty getting anyone to read it. So he paid $50 “and threw it into the lottery of scripts submitted to the Australian National Playwrights’ Conference”. The play was accepted and workshopped. Belvoir gave it another public reading and then included it in their 2005 season. The opening night audience at the MTC’s Fairfax certainly seemed to appreciate the final draft.

In writing Ray’s Tempest, his first play, actor Steve Rodgers admits to having been influenced by his work as an actor on stage adaptations of two Tim Winton novels, That Eye the Sky and Cloudstreet. Both productions possessed a fable-like quality: “a kind of theatre that I love, where the company of actors on stage acknowledge the audience and the story they’re about to tell. We all know we’re in the theatre playing make-believe, but it doesn’t mean the experience is any less actual, engrossing or moving”.

As soon as I sat down I noticed the set (the creation of Judith Cobb), a wooden structure with stairs and upper platforms and a long curving loop at one end. It immediately made me think of a roller coaster. More appropriate than perhaps I realised for the performance that was to come.

Ray’s Tempest opens with Ruthie (Genevieve Picot) addressing the audience, saying that whilst the story we are about to experience could belong to any one of us, this particular story is Ray’s. We meet Ray Brink (William McInnes) as his life is falling apart around him. His marriage failed some eleven years ago, a victim of alcohol induced violence; his sales are plummeting (he sells advertising space in Knit One, Pearl One); and last but not least he has just been told he has six months, at the most, to live.

Ray Brink has the gift of the gab, he is a salesman and he is, or has been, very good at his job. He is also very Australian, all bravado and surfaces, a man of words and action, who finds it incredibly hard to connect with feeling and express his emotions. He loved, and still loves, his wife and son, but does not know how to re-connect with them. How is he to say sorry for all the pain he knows that he has caused?

How do any of us deal with the pain in our lives and how can we make it up to those we love and have hurt?

A sombre theme and yet this creative team – writer, director (Bruce Myles), performers, designers (Judith Cobb and Jon Buswell, lighting) – succeed in creating a night of theatre that is full of music, laughter, love and loss, in fact everything that makes up life.

The writing is masterful, beautifully balanced between laughter and tragedy and never falling into the trap of sounding maudlin, self-indulgent or flippant. Although no longer a musical, as was originally conceived, there is a good deal of music in the play. William McInnes sings and Kim Gyngell, in the role of Ray’s long standing friend with a penchant for the Dapto Dogs, reveals that, in addition to being a fine comic actor, he is no slouch on the keyboard. McInnes’s performance is energetic and versatile. He handles the comedy, the strong emotion and the songs with equal ease. We laugh at Ray’s antics and yet, despite his brash superficiality, warm to the man beneath, the man whom Ruthie loved and perhaps still loves.

Genevieve Picot brings Ruthie wonderfully to life. She is equally convincing as Ray’s young wife and lover and as the deserted wife who has found a more caring and supportive man, Boris, played with warmth and conviction by Alex Menglet. Picot gives her all, sitting in the second row I could see the tears running down her cheeks during one particularly emotional scene.

The switches back and forth in time are masterfully handled so that the forward motion and energy of the play are never dissipated. A creative set (designer Judith Cobb), well used, together with a selective and effective use of lighting (Jon Buswell) help to smooth the way and make the connections. We are taken back to the young Ruthie and Ray, complete with their hopes and dreams, and already know where they will end. The hopes and dreams are mirrored in the present life of their son Frog (Hamish Michael) and his girlfriend Jasmine (Alexandra Schepisi). What will their end be?

If there is a villain in this piece it is Isabel (Caroline Brazier), Ray’s superior and the one who is driving him to make more sales and chooses to take advantage of the fact that he is dying. Brazier’s Isabel is the epitome of the high-flying, ambitious corporate player. Yet, if Isabel is a villain she is also the one who, albeit unknowingly, helps Ray to find a way to make amends for his past errors and to reconcile with past tragedy. Of course, being Ray, his chooses a particularly idiosyncratic way.

Ray’s Tempest works on many different levels and is a thoroughly satisfying theatrical experience. I laughed and I cried and above all I cared about the characters. I knew it was make-believe but the experience was none the less real, engrossing and moving.

Jan Chandler

Send us your feedback on this article or anything else in The Blurb

Ray's Tempest

Company: Melbourne Theatre Company
Venue: Fairfax Studio, VAC, Melbourne
Dates: to April 15, 2006

Review provided by: