Trelawny of the Wells, July 5, 2000

By Arthur Wing Pinero

Melbourne Theatre Company

At Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, until July 29, 2000

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Melbourne has seen very little of Arthur Wing Pinero since 1968. Perhaps we should see more. Trelawny of the Wells is a fine, broad comic production of a bright, clever play from London in 1898.

Period pieces and costume dramas are often best left to the screen, but director, Simon Phillips, keeps it animated, vivid and engaging throughout while Dale Ferguson's lavish design provides the appropriate environment.

Pinero wrote witty dialogue, colourful characters within an intelligent satire of both the bold theatricals and the self-absorbed, arrogant Victorian aristocracy.

Rose Trelawny, (Justine Clarke), leading ingénue at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London in the 1860s, is to marry Arthur Gower (Christopher Gabardi). She leaves her plum acting job and gyps actor friends to live temporarily with Arthur's grandfather, Sir William (Bob Hornery) and his great-aunt, Trafalgar (Sue Ingleton) before her marriage.

When she confronts the boredom of an evening 'at home' with the family, she relinquishes her hopes of pleasing her dead mother's wishes to make a good marriage, and returns to Sadler's Wells only to find she has lost her histrionic gifts.

Pinero wrote in a period when serious drama was being accepted in London, a town in love with melodrama, farce and spectacle. Although Pinero's dramas were influenced by Heinrich Ibsen's plays about human dilemmas, his leaning towards naturalism and an ensemble without stars is also demonstrated in this comedy.

This ensemble is exceptionally strong. Clarke is delightfully cheeky with a broad range as Rose. Gabardi cleverly creates a stammering milk-sop in Arthur and Hornery as Sir William is gruff, grotesque and funny.

Greg Stone provides two broadly comic characterisations: one is a vain and histrionic actor, the other a lisping aristocrat. Ernie Bourne, Sue Ingleton, Patrick Blackwell, Rachael Tidd, Richard Piper, Joan Sydney and Tanja Bulatovic must be mentioned for a parade of eccentric characters.

Travis McMahon as actor/writer Tom Wrench, allows the emotional layer of the work to penetrate the surface with great skill. His is the character closest to Pinero himself , although based on an earlier playwright, T.S. Robertson who challenged the theatre with naturalism.

"Don't put your daughter on the stage Mrs. Worthington", sang Noel Coward. Pinero cocks a snoot at that saying.

By Kate Herbert