Playwright & director: Michael Gow
Designer: Stephen Curtis
Cast: Nicholas Eadie, Kerry Walker, Andrea Moor, Rachel Szalay, John Gaden, Tamblyn Lord
Synopsis: A frought playwright seeks out lost members of his family and grapples with the pain of creativity.
Venue: Playbox's Beckett Theatre, CUB Malthouse, 113 Sturt Street, South Melbourne
Rating: Four and a half out of five
When two audience members huffily stalked out of the opening of Furious, they declared to foyer staff they were going to sue for false advertising.
Given that the promotion for this Sydney Theatre Company production uses descriptions such as ``savage" and ``explosive cocktail", it is hard to see where they were misled.
However, if you are expecting a production along the lines of say, Gow's outstanding Away, you should be aware that Furious is imbued with an aggressive pungency which punches far beyond Away's elegant mix of enchanting comedy and powerful tragedy.
Furious is the story of a playwright, Roland (Nicholas Eadie), who collides with his family's secret past. He pursues relatives he never knew about, but his battle is waged on many fronts. He also grapples with mental illness, his sexuality and the workaday issues of being a creative person in Australia.
Roland is suffocating in a straitjacket of superficiality and pretense. There are the government-sponsored awards (he can't bring himself to shake the Premier's hand) and the writing seminars (with their cloying, no-hoper participants).
But most importantly, there are the powerfully wrought (and initially surprising) issues of sexuality which threaten to destroy Roland.
As usual, playwright Michael Gow chooses specific mechanisms which draw out the play's themes to soaring, universal heights.
Roland often trembles with cold (when there is none) and is tormented by the eerie sound of ferociously rushing wind. He has unnerving fits and radiates a dangerous combustibility.
Although ill on opening night, Nicholas Eadie conjured Roland's restless and angry spirit with distinction. The other five cast members tackled numerous and disparate roles with no less skill.
In short, this production boasts powerful performances and complex ideas. Its language and story are confronting (it is certainly not for the faint hearted), but those with open minds and a hunger for quality theatre will be richly rewarded.