This is brilliantly funny.
It tells the tale of a family of grifters, in love with the mad possibilities of the dog track. Playwright Mary Rachel Brown has a terrific ear for dialogue, and the script sparkles with hilarious one-liners.
Under the direction of Anna Houston, the cast present magical comic performances.
Peter Carroll is perfect as Errol, the ailing patriarch of the Sinclair family, physically suffering but still linguistically exuberant and psychologically domineering. There’s utter hilarity in his certitude, not necessarily in its falsity, but in its breathtaking smallness.
As his eldest son, Cess, Justin Rosniak radiates an extraordinary energy, creating all the more laughter – and all the more pathos.
Errol’s younger son, Jimmy, is less sure of his father’s “creative” ways, and has taken a real job; he operates the electric hare at the track. And there’s something of the bunny in his character, more gentle than his brother and woefully innocent. André de Vanny’s portrayal of Jimmy is both mirth-making and heart-breaking.
And Marco Chiappi as the track manager is superb in his shallow, glib self-importance.
Is The Dapto Chaser satire? Certainly not Juvenalian: the targets are too small. The Ensemble marketing has gone for the term black comedy, which considering one life-altering plot point it most certainly is.
But in some ways, what’s happening is that we’re being invited to share the laughter of regret. It’s an invitation made even more beguiling by the fact that, since 2011 when this historical comedy was originally produced, the Dapto Dogs track has finally closed down. The Dapto Chaser invites regret for the disappearance of this sadly parochial world, and regret that anyone ever had to experience it.
But there’s also an invitation to joy, a celebration of a wild, reckless vitality; a vitality perhaps not on the side of wisdom, but indubitably on the side of Life.
Paul Gilchrist
The Dapto Chaser by Mary Rachel Brown
at Ensemble Theatre until 25 July
Image by Prudence Upton
Theatre Red 