State Theatre Company South Australia. Dunstan Playhouse. 5 Apr 2025

 

For one who has writing about theatre and the arts in this city for sixty years and then some, The Dictionary of Lost Words carves quite a notch in theatre history.

It has been the ultimate in sell-out shows. That’s the first given.

 

It derived from an international best-seller book written by a local, Pip Williams. It was adapted for the stage by the distinguished theatre writer Verity Laughton. And she, just by the way, is the unassuming matriarch in a dynastic theatre family. And, the result of her dramatisation has found legs onstage through our own State Theatre Company in now two seasons for which it was beg, borrow or steal just to get a ticket. It has been the hottest ticket seller in the company’s history, and it also thrived in Sydney and Melbourne.

 

Extraordinarily, it is a wordy play all about words.

No song and dance and not exactly a bundle of laughs. Just a whisper of whimsy.

Furthermore, it is a period piece set in the 1800s.

And yet, here we have this amazing phenomenon which really must have a salute for the arts archives.

That it weaves in the passions of the suffragette movement, the rigidity of the old patriarchy, and the societal judgements on illegitimacy, are artful by-the-ways to the plays resounding relevance. Ah, yes. There’s an element of love, too. 

 

This critic has seen it twice, both times as directed by Jennifer Arthur and designed by Jonathon Oxlade with costumes by Ailsa Paterson. The only ostensible difference was in the cast.

 

It left Adelaide with the incomparable Tilda Cobham Hervey in the lead and, incomparable she was, hence a hard act to follow by Shannen Alycen Quan. This role depicts Esme Nicholl, first seen as the wee daughter of one of the men engaged in the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary. She has found on the floor under the tables of the Scriptorium the first lost word, "bondmaiden", a word which is foundation to the feminist spirit of the play. Taking the word with her, Esme grows up as a woman determined to have a life of independence against the patriarchal environment of the times. While Esme is a fictional creation, the gruff Scotsman behind the Scriptorium lectern represents the truth upon which the story is based. He is the great Oxford lexicographer Sir James Murray in whose Oxford Garden shed was indeed the Scriptorium wherein the work of word-gathering did take place. He was impeccably embodied in the first production by Chris Pitman; another hard act to follow performance as it left Adelaide. In this new incarnation Brian Meegan develops the role with a nice simpatico streak. Meanwhile, Ksenja Logos of the original cast continues to play multiple roles beautifully. Kathryn Adams, Johnny Nasser, Arkia Ashraf, Angela Nica Sullen and James Smith also shine.

 

Although offstage chatter had it that there were assorted production elements which might have been honed or changed for the eastern states runs, it was not a better production which returned. It actually seemed a little less tight and spirited. It is an unapologetically long play. 

 

A note here: I viewed the original production from classic critics’s seats in the stalls. The show’s massive popularity and my own overcrowded calendar had me seated in the back row of the gods for the second viewing.  There are no bad seats; just different aspects.  From the balcony, the stage is like a doll’s house. But the glory of this bi-level Oxlade set with its busy wall of pigeonholes plus its AV components remains a marvel of design and the nigh-perfect miked sound means that not a word is lost. Nuance lives. 

 

It is glossy professionalism from end to end. Not only but also, it is an important piece of theatre - a shining achievement of ingenuity and erudition.

 

The universality of themes, the relevance of preserving and respecting language, yet more significant in this time of reclamation of lost languages of our own aboriginal people, should give this play a place in the repertoire of Australian classics. 

 

Everyone should see it.

 

And, on that note, it is heading off and away on interstate seasons to spread the word on words. My word is “brava”.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 3 to 17 April (Adelaide) continuing till 7 Jun on tour.

Where: Dunstan Playhouse

Bookings: stateheatrecompany.com.au  

 

Brisbane: 26 Apr to 10 May – Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre 
Canberra: 15 May to 24 May – Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre
Wollongong: 29 May to 7 Jun – Merrigong Theatre Company