THEATRE
Sunday by Anthony Weigh by Melbourne Theatre Company
At MTC Sumner Theatre, Southbank Theatre until 18 Feb 2023
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***&1/2
This review is published only on this blog. k
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| Josh McConville, Nikki Shiels, Matt Day MTC Sunday_photoPiaJohnson |
Sunday by Anthony Weigh incorporates public information about the life and arts philanthropy of Sunday and John Reed who established an artists’ colony that became the Heide Gallery in Heidelberg, to weave an imagined story about their private lives – particularly that of the troubled Sunday.
The real Sunday, played in this production with febrile, audacious, nervy energy by Nikki Shiels, was part of the wealthy, Melbourne old money Ballieu family and married successful lawyer, John Reed (Matt Day). In Weigh's play, Sunday steers their lives on a path that leads to their patronage of artists including Sidney Nolan (Josh McConville), Albert Tucker and his wife Joy Hester (Ratidzo Mambo).
Her long-standing affair with Nolan, known to her husband, degenerates into antipathy after Nolan proposes that she leave John and marry him. Although Sunday is a force of nature who shapes an entire bohemian, hopefully idyllic, artistic world, her delicate mental state is a continuing problem that is exacerbated by Nolan’s sudden and volatile departure from Heide and his demand that she return all of the paintings that he left at Heide.
Shiels gives a vivid and complex portrayal of Sunday that makes her attractively charming and fiery, but also repellent in her unpredictable, controlling and often bullying behaviour.
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| Nikki Shiels-MTCSunday_photoPiaJohnson |
McConville’s Nolan is totally credible, initially as a stammering, under-confident, working-class young man who develops into a confident, successful, sometimes arrogant and manipulative artist. Day as John Reed provides a still point in the tempest that is Sunday and Nolan’s explosive relationship, while Mambo’s Joy Hester gives us a glimpse into the rest of the artists’ community at Heide.
Weigh’s writing is witty and does not get bogged down in too much historical fact, but rather relies on the central relationship between Sunday, Nolan and Reed. Sarah Goodes’ direction is deft and unobtrusive, allowing the characters and relationships to create the drama.The production is set on a cavernous, almost empty stage, with the walls of the design (Anna Cordingley) that resemble a painter’s streaked, abstract canvas.
The three-hour play is unnecessarily long although it never bores as we witness the galloping disaster that is Sunday Reed’s life and loves.
By Kate Herbert
Cast
Nikki Shiels- Sunday Reed
Matt Day -John Reed
Josh McConville- Sidney Nolan
Ratidzo Mambo -Joy Hester
Joshua Tighe – Sweeney Reed
Creative Team
Writer - Anthony Weigh
Director - Sarah Goodes
Designer -Anna Cordingley
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