The girls are bought up by their grandmother, but when she dies they must decide how they will live without her. The situation is complicated by Hope’s intellectual disability, which is revealed to be the result of their mother’s bout of syphilis and alcoholism when she was pregnant. Older sister, Destiny, believes she cannot care for Hope and insists she move into an aged care facility where she’ll be with “lots of Nans”.
The defensive Destiny, played with grit and pathos by Wilhemina Stracke (The Slap, Rush), knows it now falls to her to be responsible for her sister. Until their grandmother’s death she has avoided too much family involvement. Through the stories that Hope asks her to tell about the girls’ childhood, we see her memories tainted by her anger and bitterness toward the mother who abandoned them to alcohol and men. She is unforgiving and just hanging on by a strand. She has almost given up hope literally – as she is about to abandon her own sister Hope to an institution – and emotionally.
Hope, on the other hand, is forgiving and loving and only sees the good in her mother and grandmother. She wants to believe that her mother loved them and holds onto objects that she reveals one by one, to Destiny, as proof that this is so.
The two actors worked the well-crafted material superbly and created a relationship between the sisters that was believable and affecting. Their skill made us care for the two girls. We wanted it to end well for both of them.
Brady’s portrayal of an intellectually disabled woman was note perfect. Her character’s innocence and simple way of looking at the world was a perfect foil for Stracke’s cynical Destiny. And the moments of humour softened the hard edges of this tragic family story.
This is a play of stories within stories, family secrets revealed, sisterly love and frustration, sibling rivalry and the strands that weave around the four women, two missing, two present, to create a fractured family love story.
It could have been a bleaker story given the subject matter, but in the hands of a fine, empathetic writer like Brady who infuses the play with humour and nuance, there are enough moments of delight to counter the darker moments in the story.
This play is also a testament to the directing skills of Sue Jones. The action is contained and naturalistic and never allowed to become over wrought, even though it would have been easy to tip over into melodrama given the subject matter.
La Mama presents
Strands
By Peta Brady
Director: Sue Jones
Dramaturg: Catherine Hill
Designer: Belinda Wiltshire
Stage Manager: Bec Etchell
Performed by Wilhelmina Stracke & Peta Brady
La Mama Courthouse, Carlton
December 1–December 18, 2011
Bookings: lamama.com
