Review – Wendy House
“After years of turmoil a nation is broken. A curfew is imposed with terrifying penalties. When mother country turns on her children, what do children do?” They seek protection in a Wendy House, of course. Pixel Theatre Co’s energetic and original piece of new Australian theatre offers a glimpse into the lives of five young people running from their government’s oppressive regime in a futuristic, dystopian nightmare.
This vivacious ensemble of five Melbourne-based actors offer commendable performances but are ultimately let down by an underdeveloped script, leaving the dialogue melodramatic and repetitive. The proclaimed Breakfast Club correlation is accurate in an angst-ridden and you’ll-probably-connect-with-it-if-you-see-it-in-your-teens kind of way; however, Wendy House is more of a hybrid between John Marsden’s When the War Began series and, at a stretch, the Hunger Games.
The intriguing dynamic between Sebastian Bertoli’s Luke and David Unwin’s Will, who explore a relationship strained by constant terror, grief and loss of hope, is refreshing after endless reinforcement of stereotyped characters. From a ditsy, conservative “princess”, an untrusting, sulky street kid, and an annoying as all hell aggressive outcast whose problems apparently can be attributed by his broken-home childhood. (Cue Simple Mind’s track and Judd Nelson fist-pump).
The set design utilises the Salad Days’ stripped-bare space brilliantly, transforming an unrecognisable café into a run-down squat where these five strangers desperately seek safety and explore their identities. The walls are tagged, the windows are shut-up and the audience is sat amongst ripped mattresses, dirty pillows and milk-crates that the actors weave in and out of.
Ultimately Wendy House fails to fully explore the social themes of its dystopian storyline (at least to the extent it has promoted in an inspired online marketing campaign). Themes from current international human rights policies and Australia’s own immigration detention agenda are hinted at, but instead the anxieties and fears of the teenage characters are utilised to portray what life might be like to be on the run from your own government. Why is this curfew being enforced? What happens once we’re all caught? With these questions left unanswered it feels like a missed opportunity to really scare the bejesus out of their audiences. An outside sound scape (or music of any kind) might have assisted the cast in conveying the fear of the outside and built tension to the terrifying heights that Wendy House could have achieved.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMBfVeinyHA&w=300]
