[2012067] A Property of the Clan
Port Augusta Secondary School @ Star Theatres – Theatre Two
1:00pm, Thu 1 Mar 2012
There’s always a risk with school productions – the risk that the material is going to be underdone, that the production is going to be naïve. But I’ve come to appreciate such works for what they are: experience for young aspiring actors, directors, and theatricians. And, after all, Urban Myth has proven (time and time again) that age need not be an impediment to a quality theatre experience.
But I’m still interested in why a country school would pick the Fringe as an outing for its students – if only logistically, given the timespan between the nomination of the event and the performance of the show (not to mention the presentation so early in the school year). So, having turned up typically early, I took the opportunity to talk to one of the kids and an adult (teacher? parent?) who were performing ticket-tending duties.
My usual “how have the crowds been?” opener was met with a pair of grimaces, but then a perkier admission that there were a couple of pending school groups coming later in the season. Yes, the show was developed by the drama group, and it’s been a pretty tough learning curve. I put on a cheering smile and ask “sorry to hear it’s been tough… but has it been worth it?” The girl positively lit up – “oh shit yes!” she enthuses, before being admonished by her chaperone.
By the scheduled starting time, there’s only about a dozen punters assembled – most of them silver-tops, giving me the impression it’s a grandparents support matinée. No matter – Theatre Two is small, so it still felt like a decent crowd – not depressingly small, anyway. I settled back in my seat and watched the cast dicking about in the wings, occasionally peeking out at the audience from backstage… clearly professionalism wasn’t one of the lessons being taught here.
A Property of the Clan is your typical Australian coming-of-age story. It revolves around a cluster of familiar characters: core character Jared has a girlfriend, Rachel, blessed with the school-smarts that he lacks; of course, they’re separated by a socio-economical divide. Jared’s little sister Jade provides an innocent voice-of-reason; Jared and Rachel’s mothers provide a generational contrast. Jared is lead astray by meathead friend Ricko, with his conscience tugged by the doe-eyed Glen.
So – Jared and Rachel’s relationship is turbulent, what with the wealth (and intelligence) divide. Their lives are turned upside when one of Rachel’s friends is murdered during an underage end-of-year party; Jared witnesses the event, but feels honour-bound to not say anything about it. Of course, this truth eats away at him until he relents, “betraying” his friends…
But it’s incredibly difficult to care about any of the characters on display here, because… well, they’re all so unbelievable. In the central role, Oliver Petrie spends most of his time looking at the floor and dropping lines; Gabrielle Ballard’s Rachel is (thankfully) played much more convincingly, but it’s hard to imagine why she would want to spend time with Jared at all. Ricko and Jade are both monotonal and wooden, but at least Ricko looked the part. Ann Clarke’s Diane – Jared’s mother – proved to be the best performer of the group, doubling up her directing duties – but unfortunately the blocking is blunt and unimaginative, and simple lighting cues seemed to prove too much for the operators, with lights coming up too late and dropping too early.
And the thing that really annoyed me? On the table in the middle of the set was a (production?) folder with “FRINGE 2012” boldly emblazoned on the side. I wish I knew why that raised my ire so much… but hey, it’s the little things, right?
But it’s not all their fault, especially if they’ve done a straightforward adaptation of the play (and there’s no reason for me to suspect otherwise); A Property of the Clan is a clumsy affair, full of pointlessly short “scenes” that barely advance the story or provide insight. I swear that some scenes were literally two spoken lines: it took longer for the actors to plod to their stage-centre mark than it did for the content of the vignette to play out. A bit of digging reveals the play to be an educational piece (later adapted for Blackrock), “inspired” by the real-life events that surrounding the murder of Stockton girl Leigh Leigh. And it’s disappointing that, whilst addressing the concept of blind mateship, the stronger themes – feminism and equality – were left by the wayside.
I really didn’t enjoy A Property of the Clan at all: I found it an unrewarding story delivered in a stilted and utterly unconvincing manner. I didn’t even like writing about it – and usually I enjoy a rant about a bad show. In fact, the most enjoyable thing about the entire experience was the bus ride back into the city – Adelaide Metro saw fit to service Sir Donald Bradman Drive with old retro yellow school busses, the likes of which I rode in during my high school years. Now that was a teen-ism worth dwelling on.