Director Stuart Grant is well equipped to handle the force of Ray Mooney’s powerful script. Mooney wrote the play as a response to the four months he himself spent in Pentridge Prison’s notorious H Division during the 1970s, when institutionalised prison brutality was one of the worst-kept secrets of the Australian penitentiary system. After meeting Christopher Dale Flannery, Australia’s ‘Mr Rent-a-Kill’, and seeing first-hand the poisonous dynamic between the inmates and the guards, Mooney penned Everynight, Everynight to tell the prisoners’ side of the story (a side which was infamously whitewashed in the 1972 Jenkinson Inquiry).
It’s useful to have an understanding of the context in which Everynight, Everynight was written, not least because it helps explain the furious anger bubbling under every line spoken from the moment the play begins. Many playwrights have tried to capture viciousness, cruelty and fury for the stage, but rarely have they succeeded as completely as Mooney, whose words are uncompromising and utterly compelling.
The text is brought to life by a wonderful cast – perhaps the best to have ever taken on Everynight, Everynight, given its history of being performed in prisons or by smaller theatre groups. Damian Hill plays Flannery as a somewhat hapless small-time criminal who finds himself incarcerated in H Division before his trial. His knowledge of his legal rights is no match for the sadism of the guards, who ridicule, humiliate and, yes, beat him. The staged violence is flawlessly choreographed – much effort has been made to ensure that the beatings look as savage as possible to the naked eye. The beatings are so convincing that the play becomes almost unbearable at some points. It pulls no punches, so to speak.
Every member of the ensemble is talented, and all bring their characters alive with nuanced, complex performances. It must be said that Steve Bastoni is a genuine stand-out performer: his Bryant is created in such a skilful, naturalistic fashion that even his long, unwieldy, expletive-laden monologues roll off his tongue and command the audience’s attention.
For a play performed in a small room, with a small cast, some wonderful efforts have been made to create atmosphere in an economical and effective way. Matthew Adey (set and lighting design) and Robert Jordan (sound design) are both clearly masters of their craft. Everything, from the harsh brightness of a courtroom to the muted uniform lights of a cell is created by Adey using lights, with minimal props and no significant set. Jordan’s sound design eerily picks up on every bellow and beating and sends it echoing around the small studio, adding to the unsettling claustrophobia of the script.
At the helm is Grant, whose direction keeps the play marching relentlessly along, from one uncomfortable scene to the next. His vision is beautifully realised, especially in the marvellous scene where the prisoners begin taking something back from the guards. Despite having only four people on stage (three prisoners and one guard), the addition of off-stage voices gives the audience a sense of not only H Division’s other inmates, but its geography. The chilling dialogue echoes around the room, with short, spoken motifs increasing the terror that the prisoners now hold over their captors. “Who that there?”
Theatre can celebrate life; and it can also challenge it, and demand something of its audience that may be difficult to give. Everynight, Everynight is the latter, and for those who are up to the task, it is highly recommended.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Frank Theatre Company presents
Everynight, Everynight
By Ray Mooney
Directed by Stuart Grant
Set and Lighting Design: Matthew Adey
Sound Design: Robert Jordan
Cast: Steve Bastoni, John Brumpton, Damian Hill, Adrian Mulraney, Paul Ireland, Tony Rickards and Kaitlyn Clare
Gasworks Studio Theatre, Gasworks Arts Park
May 8 – 27
