THEATRE: THAT FACE
Sit up, Baby Boomers. There’s a new generation on the block and they’ve got something to say. We’re not referring about the hokey Talkin’ Bout Your Generation pop culture game either – although both have the ability to infiltrate homes across Australia. This is a subtler, more ultimately defining struggle, and the battleground is your family. According to director Lee Lewis, the latest Belvoir production That Face, “Casts a critical eye on the selfishness of the Baby Boomers and the obsession with youth.” With adults increasingly infatuated with material acquisitions, holiday homes, designer bags and yoga classes, it means there’s an army of kids who are being conscripted into the post of parent, “The children become the responsible one, the parents of parents.” In That Face, the Gen-Yers are represented by Mia, a drug-peddling boarder, and her brother Henry, who is taking serious liberties with his mother’s liquor cabinet. Father is gallivanting through Hong Kong with his new wife, Mother is lost to a boozy stupor. With absent parents, both kids are entrepreneurial however they can be, until they are brought together for an all-out family fenderbender. “It’s a full on story to be in the middle of every week!” laughs Lewis, “It’s not kind to the actors” (who include Marcus Graham and Susie Porter). Written by 19-year-old Londoner Polly Stenham, That Face blew away both audiences and critics alike when it debuted in 2007. Despite coming from the mouth of babes, Lewis assures us “It’s not a play for young people … It’s a criticism of the outfall of a capitalist generation …” The family are rich in a freewheeling way – “There’s a great part where Martha [the mother] says, oh don’t worry about it, I’ll buy you more” – and so the production is visually drenched in Money, down to the thread count on Henry’s bed. But, as Lewis says, “It’s not about the money, it’s about the neglect” It’s a middle to upper class affliction, and it’s a reflection that Stenham didn’t flinch from talking about. “That’s what makes it confronting … [the audience] will say, I recognise you, I sit and have brunch with you.”
Until Mar 14, Belvoir Theatre Upstairs, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills, 9699 3444 or belvoir.com.au
