THEATRE REVIEW: Playthings has enough heart to make up for some shortcomings
The latest Black Swan State Theatre Company production, made in collaboration with the Blue Room, has lofty ambitions it mostly succeeds in meeting.
Playthings tells the story of two young lovers exploring the fraught world of 13-year-old life, with all the hormonal challenges and hard life lessons that accompany it. Family tensions, unclear intentions, and torrid circumstances abound in the lives of Lucy (Courtney Henri) and Arnold (Daniel Buckle), who turn to each other for comfort and seclusion. Needless to say, this is much more of a character and theme-driven play than a plot-driven one, but the two leads are riveting enough to make you want to continue their journey.
(Images by Daniel J Grant)
The main thing holding Playthings back from its full potential, in my opinion, is its trope-heavy script. While there are some surprising turns and sensitive explorations of complicated issues, at time the dialogue became a bit predictable, and some of the storylines a bit cliched for the Bildungsroman genre. Still, the core of the script is very commendable, it’s mostly in the margins that things get a bit unrefined.
That said, everything else about Playthings makes it well worth the ticket price. The play featured highly creative set, lighting, and sound design from an all-star creative cast to appropriately emphasise the tension and drive the story forward. There are also some genuine moments of hilarity, which is made all the better with the fantastic performances of the cast. I particularly enjoyed the performances of Siobhan Dow-Hall and St John Cowcher as the supporting characters, who complimented the angst of Lucy and Arnold with their own intriguing adult-world dramas. For anyone predisposed to a good coming-of-age tale, this one should tick all the right boxes.