That Eye, The Sky
\nA stage adaptation of Tim Winton\u2019s novel
\nby Justin Monjo and Richard Roxburgh.
\nState Theatre Company South Australia.
\nDunstan Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre.
\nAugust 28. Tickets: $32- $67. Bookings 131 246 or online
\nDuration: 100 minutes (no interval)
\nUntil September 16.<\/p>\n
Tim Winton wrote That Eye, the Sky<\/em> when he was 25, describing it as the novel where his work turned a corner. In it he embraced a vigorous vernacular, and explored layers of belief, mysticism and the outer perimeters of human hope. His captivating central character, Ort (short for Morton) is at upper level primary school. He is eccentric, other-worldly, but also blithely candid, intuitive, and unswervingly honest.<\/p>\n When his father Sam, is massively injured in a car accident, Ort (with his emotionally scarred and bitter sister, Tegwyn) helps their mother, Alice, tend to their paralysed and speechless father with both loving patience and a darkening pall of despair. Into this besieged and stricken family comes Henry Warburton, like a character from a Flannery O\u2019Connor novel. He is a vagrant preacher, an acid\u2013fried shaman and a faith healer with no mojo.<\/p>\n In State Theatre Company\u2019s compelling revival of Justin Monjo and Richard Roxburgh\u2019s 1994 adaptation, director Kate Champion has brought together a production that crackles with Winton\u2019s text and enriches the characters, each one faced with challenges seemingly greater than their resources and endurance.<\/p>\n Geoff Cobham\u2019s d\u00e9cor and lighting (assisted by Wendy Todd) is his last project as resident at State \u2013 and he brings the best of his signatures. The small town homestead set is detailed with wooden platforms and stacks of car tires, a creek at the edge of the stage, and a huge crumpled scrim of cloud above. The whole back wall is a canvas for saturated reds and blues, while intense sidelights create a photorealist edge, and the firmament is periodically lit up for close encounters of the numinous kind.<\/p>\n Alan John\u2019s splendidly-judged music (like Andrew Howard\u2019s soundscape) is a mix of sustained ambient exhalations and lyrical wind and reed consorts, interspersed with gospel refrains and humming choruses.<\/p>\n Champion has brought together an excellent cast. Bill Allert as Sam, the immobilised pieta, Elena Carapetis as his shattered wife Alice, Rory Walker as the vile neighbour, Mr Cherry, Michelle Nightingale, his wife, and Ezra Juanta as his son, Ort\u2019s erstwhile friend, Fat – all bring precision and feeling to the story.<\/p>\n Kate Cheel sustains the pain in Tegwyn, too sceptical to accept faith, but longing for its nourishment, and Christopher Pitman expertly navigates the quirks and contradictions of Henry. But special mention belongs to Tim Overton\u2019s outstanding portrayal of Ort. He is the spiritual core of the story, the one who never takes his eye off that sky.<\/p>\n \u201cHallelujah to a compelling revival\u201d, The Australian<\/em>, August 30, 2018, p.14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" That Eye, The Sky A stage adaptation of Tim Winton\u2019s novel by Justin Monjo and Richard Roxburgh. State Theatre Company South Australia. Dunstan Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. August 28. Tickets: $32- $67. Bookings 131 246 or online Duration: 100 minutes (no interval) Until September 16. Tim Winton wrote That Eye, the Sky when he was 25, describing it as the novel where his work turned a corner. In it he embraced a vigorous vernacular, and explored layers of belief, mysticism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,5,16,14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-38","category-archive","category-australian-texts","category-state-theatre-company","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2955,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2954\/revisions\/2955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}