Adelaide Fringe. Presented by Michael Allen Productions. The Big Slapple – 48 Lounge. 26 Feb 2014
When is a decision not a decision? When there is no choice, or, put another way, when there is really only one course of action which is inevitable.
Sheila Duncan’s ‘A Solitary Choice’ invites us into the private world of a young woman and mother whose life is very much on hold. Her vitality is being slowly eroded away by a self absorbed and inattentive husband, as if she were a sheep in a herded flock being prodded and manoeuvred into an inevitable future. Then she meets Carlos and is rapidly drawn into his vibrant reality and into an unlikely affair, and she falls pregnant to him. And so begins her torturous journey of identifying and weighing up options until she reasons that she is left with… a solitary choice.
Her decision making along the way is shaped by a series of events: her cat giving birth to a litter of kittens, and later being savaged by the neighbour’s dog; her young son wanting to keep the kittens; a work client wanting to make seemingly unwise life changing financial decisions. On one level, Duncan’s use of these simple every-day events seems a little forced but their use is in fact quite clever: they serve to force the woman to accept, and celebrate, the fact that she has choice, and that she must exercise choice rather than becoming a docile and passive victim – some directionless flotsam on the ocean, or a sheep in a flock.
The writing is a rich blend of whimsy and humour, and is contrasted with the occasional moment of deep and touching pathos. Some of the humour has a certain predictability and prosaicness about it that particularly appealed to the women in the audience, and is used frequently to keep the action rolling along at a vibrant pace.
The play is an extended soliloquy, and Tamara Lee who was alone onstage for nearly an hour was impressive in the role of the woman. She has excellent diction and was clearly heard through the very large venue. Rather than making her too ‘busy’ on stage, Director Michael Allen preferred to let the text do the work in the hands of a capable actor who knows stagecraft. Allen employed a simple but effective lighting plot and used some well-chosen musical tracks to underscore the action.
This is a gentle play, which I felt occasionally didn’t know whether it wanted to be a light comedy or an insightful drama. Maybe playing it in a more intimate venue might have made me feel differently. That aside, the audience was drawn to its feet in enthusiastic applause at the end.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: The Big Slapple – 48 Lounge
Continues at the Port Augusta Institute Theatre on the 14th of March
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
