I’m a huge fan of the one-person show.
But I do feel it’s odd that the actor often tells their own story. (It does make for an experience rather different to watching an actor play Macbeth.)
Truth telling creates an intriguing frisson in theatre. Such pieces are performative, ingenious, theatrical, yet not fiction. And as the performer shares their feelings (which we take as genuine) we know they will do it all again tomorrow night, which is teasingly intriguing, because such personal Truth is notoriously fickle and resistant to repetition.
And all this fascinating oddness is increased when the topic is something as personal and poignant as grief.
Writer and performer Georgina Pender tells us of the death of her mother and of her response. We are told her mother was an alcoholic who died early of throat cancer.
Grief is a ubiquitous thing, perhaps the most so: who is there among us without loss? How do you say anything original? Is there really any requirement to do so? Perhaps Pender comes from a place of sufficient difference: her relationship with her mother was frightening and fractious. How do we grieve someone for whom our feelings are so complex?
It’s a truism that people grieve in different ways, and it’s become one because it’s had to be repeated so often. We judge grief. It’s stupid and narrow-minded to do so, but that’s never stopped anyone. That she stares down this demon is what makes Pender’s performance so very admirable. Sharings like this broaden our world.
Directed by Lauren Bennett, this show is especially theatrically rich. Georgia Wilkinson has created clever projections with voice over with which Pender interacts. Oliver Close has composed and plays live a beautiful soundtrack, and Pender reveals a gorgeous singing voice. She also presents some powerful movement pieces and a gift for finding unexpected humour in the darkness. All this makes for a stimulating and compelling production, one that dares to both share and explore that everyday mystery, our eternal connection with the eternally absent.
Paul Gilchrist
Good Grief by Georgina Pender
at the Emerging Actors Sharehouse, Erskineville, as part of the Sydney Fringe
until 30 September
Theatre Red 