Climbers COMMENT 4 June 2023

THEATRE

Written by Elly D’Arcy, by Fever103 Theatre

At 45 Downstairs until 11 June 2023

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This is not a review but, rather, a comment as I was unable to see the second half of the show. I’ll mention this show on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 10 June 2023. KH

 

(L to R) Sebastian Li, Charlie Veitch, Eddie Orton, Meg Taranto-pics by Harrison Baker

Climbers, by Elly D’Arcy, is an ambitious production with a large, mostly young cast that includes recent acting graduates, many of whom are from VCA Drama school.

 

Meg Taranto is ebullient and audacious in the lead role of Rosalind, and Taranto has a bright future ahead of her if this performance is any indication of her talent.

 

The play takes place in 1939 and Rosalind is an A-grade student reading English at Cambridge University in a time when young women are still not admitted to full degrees. Rosalind is a ‘modern woman’, as her newfound male friends describe her, and she wants to engage in all the pursuits available to the men including drinking in pubs and joining the men’s illicit climbing group that gambols over the tops of Cambridge buildings in secret.

 

 If she is caught in such a pursuit or even caught fraternising with men at night, she will be sent down. Double standards abound and all favour the men. Rosalind revels in her secret freedoms, her risky climbing and her burgeoning romance with Fred (Eddie Orton). However, the joyful frivolity of the first part of Rosalind’s story becomes something darker.

 

On a simple but effective, abstract set design of white wooden climbing frames and floating fabric (Savanna Wegman), Monique Mariani directs the large cast with energy and the youthful actors are enthusiastic and vivacious.

 

I cannot provide a review of the entire show, but D’Arcy shows promise as a writer and Taranto is a fine discovery.

 

 Kate Herbert

 

Elly D’Arcy- Writer

Monique Mariani - Director

Justin Gardam- Sound Designer

Savanna Wegman Set & Costume Designer

Georgie Wolfe - Lighting Designer

 

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Meg Taranto (she/they) - Rosalind

Eddie Orton (he/him) - Fred

Sebastian Li (he/him) - Alex

Charlie Veitch (he/him) - George

Tyallah Bullock (she/they) - Ruth

Tahlia Jameson (she/her)  - Tommy

Lotte Beckett - (she/her) Dilys

Vitoria Hronopoulos (she/her) – Jane

Milijana Cancar (she/her) – Beatrice

Chris Broadstock (he/him) - Radlett