The Memory Mirror_REVIEW_11 Sept 2026 ***

THEATRE

Written by Georgina Luck

At: Brunswick Mechanics’ Institute, Wed 9 to Sun 13 Sept 2026

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:  *** (3)

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly, 3MBS, Sat 19 Oct 2026. KH

Gabriel Partington_Margot Knight_image supplied

Georgina Luck’s The Memory Mirror takes us to a Mind Body Spirit Festival in the Blue Mountains, where memories, trauma, community and a couple of mysterious cockatoos collide. There is plenty of dramatic potential in the concept of the play and Drew Tingwell’s production boasts some fine local actors.

 

Daniel (Gabriel Partington), a paramedic, has avoided returning to the festival and the town for seven years after suffering a traumatic experience there which resulted in a memory gap. Now he has reluctantly returned, accompanied by his long-suffering colleague Myra (Anthea Davis), and new ambo recruit Pip (Christine Husband) whose perky, intuitive energy Daniel finds irritating.

 

The local festival provides plenty of eccentricity, including a memory competition, home-made cakes, candle stalls and Banjo (Don Bridges), the chippy MC, who quotes poetry while attempting to keep the increasingly unruly proceedings on track. Fat chance!

 

Partington brings genuine passion and emotional commitment to the overwrought Daniel as he confronts his past trauma. Jim Daly has an edge of danger as Mr. Monroe, the reigning memory champion, whose controlling behaviour towards his wife is uncomfortable to watch. Margot Knight is sympathetic as Mrs, Monroe who appears to have perfect recall — at least until her husband enters the room.

Margot Knight, Jim Daly, image supplied

Tingwell keeps the action moving, but the production is hampered by excessive exposition, both in a long opening narration by Daniel and at other points in the play. The writing often sounds like prose lifted from a novel so that it lacks dramatic intention and dilutes dramatic tension.

 

The narrative structure shifts from present to past, at times becoming confused. Dialogue is sometimes repetitive, reiterating ideas and memories rather than using repetition as a deliberate poetic or dramatic device, and some interactions also feel awkward and underdeveloped.

 

The loose, pale curtains upstage provide a screen for shadow puppetry, with the cockatoos Huggin and Mummin appearing to offer predictions, warnings or indications of truth and lies. The fantastical ‘memory mirror’ is also presented as a shadow image, but the projections are too blurry to have impact. It is also unclear what the cockatoos are predicting when they turn east or west.

There are intriguing ideas here about trauma, memory and the unreliability of recollection, but The Memory Mirror needs substantial editing and clarification to bring those ideas into sharper focus.

 

Cast

Gabriel Partington - Daniel

Don Bridges - Banjo

Margot Knight - Mrs Monroe

Jim Daly - Mr Monroe

Anthea Davis - Myra

Christine Husband- Pip

 

Creative Team

Director -Drew Tingwell

Puppetry- Scout McDonald