Marlin is a delightful sixty-five minute burst of sea adventure well suited to parents and children over the age of seven or eight seeking a maritime escape from Melbourne during the school holidays. Marlin is a newly-staged play by Australian playwright Damien Millar which has come about from a collaboration between the Arena Theatre Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company. Christian Leavesley is the director of the play which uses three actors: Ashlea Pyke as Billy Grogan, Christopher Bunworth as Thomas Grogan and Jacob Williams, the puppeteer.
It is an excellent piece of vibrant theatre which held the attention of its young audience from start to finish. The story of Marlin is that of a young girl, Billy Grogan, who, on losing her father at sea, is now living with her colourful and loving grandfather, Thomas Grogan. One night Thomas and Billy decide they need to go ‘beyond the reef’ to return to its home a large male marlin that has been caught in a fishing net and is struggling for life. The story unfolds as the three characters find themselves challenged by stormy conditions and perilous moments.
The humour of the play is derived from the constant banter between Billy and her grandfather. However through their conversations the writer explores deep issues of loss and change accompanied with simple messages about the healing that occurs when adults and children communicate with honesty and love, despite moments of harsh words and tears. By the end of the show we find that along with the characters we have traveled a long way down the path of grief and resilience; the play closes with the grandfather and granddaughter looking to their future with a new optimism. Simple metaphors such as the symbolism of the dawn, sea storms and the marlin’s journey itself add emotional impact to the story-telling.
The compelling nature of the play is strongly supported by the most excellent and child-orientated stage design and management. As Billy and her grandfather set out to the ocean they climb aboard a wooden boat that rocks ceaselessly like a bucking bronco throughout the play. In addition, four huge foam machines have been brought in (from America) to the set. By the construction of a enormous stage-wide bath, filled with varying levels of enormously thick, vibrantly coloured blue and green rope, white bubbling foam is pumped rapidly at various times through the performance filling the stage at a moment’s notice.The visual impact of these enormous quantities of foam and the violently rocking boat caused a lot of the younger eyes to widen with amazement. The admiration for the bubbles was only increased when various characters, fish or human, dived from the boat to plunge and disappear into the foam and reeemerge covered in bubbles.
As the lights went up, I heard two children’s first remarks were: ‘That foam looked so fun!’ and ‘How did they make all those bubbles?’ Arena Theatre Company dedicates itself to making work for an audience between the ages of eight and 25. Its artistic director Leavesley wrote in the Marlin program that he saw young people playing in a roomful of foam and wanted to use the appeal of bubbles to engage his younger audience in Marlin.
He also writes about wanting to celebrate the specialness of the grandparent/grandchild relationship in his production of Marlin; a relationship Leavesley observes is often less burdened with concerns about the future or good-role modelling than that which parents have with their children.
The latter goal is largely achieved by the carefully observed interpretation of the charismatic Tommy by Bunworth. He presents a captivating performance and brings the character to its maximum potential with humour and genuine emotion. Billy is a played with vibrancy but sometimes has a pantomime quality that is in uncomfortable contrast to the more understated playing by Bunworth. The puppetry is highly illusionist and captures the wild flapping of a fish out of water and gannets diving for fish parts; it brings another vital and visually stimulating element to the performance.
It is a show that I would highly recommend for children and teenagers. It is a visual feast and left me feeling quite refreshed by a sense of the sea and the elements. There are a whole number of intelligent creative forces behind this simple show and they very much succeed in coming together to create a coherent and wholly satisfying piece of young person’s theatre. The cast received long and warm applause by the audience as the two adventurers returned to shore. Did they succeed in their mission to return the marlin to the deep ocean? If I told you, it would spoil it…
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Marlin
By Damien Millar
Arena Theatre Company and MTC
Southbank Theatre, The Lawler
www.mtc.com.au
25 September – 11 October
