Summer of the Aliens

14-year-old Lewis (Regan Lynch) lives in a housing commission flat with his mother (Alison Telfer McDonald), grandmother (Lindi Milbourne) and sister (Elodie Boal) – all of whom struggle to understand him, just as he struggles to understand them. His friend Dulcie (Sarah Greenwood) is desperate for love and affection, while his friend Brian (James Dyke) is solely interested in sex. Over one summer, adolescent friendships are taken to their limits, a wandering father returns and Lewis is confronted by the realities of becoming a man in an alien world.

Originally a radio play before being transferred to the stage in 1992, still resonates emotionally, even if it suffers at times from a lack of subtlety and from strong themes competing for dominance. Considering the issues of gender, race, depression and sexual abuse, the play is a brave choice, even for a company unafraid of making such choices. The main problems lie in Nowra’s handling of the themes. The ending seems a little rushed and Nowra hands the difficult task of tying up loose ends to the narrator. His treatment of certain characters, particularly the postman Mr Piscano, can be a little irksome and the brief inclusion of Lewis’s flamboyant, theatrical Uncle Richard and his new Japanese partner is baffling. Perhaps the latter character serves as an important bit of symbolism, but if that is the case, with the character having literally nothing to do, it remains more odd than poignant. The play is already cluttered with a lot of ideas that, thankfully, director Susan O’Toole Cridland manages to juggle with experience and creativity.

The wonderful thing about companies like Brisbane Arts Theatre is the all-too-rare opportunity of watching young people play young people and it’s the young cast in this production that carry a disproportionate amount of the drama with aplomb. Regan Lynch plays Lewis as complex, angst-ridden and altogether confused, while Sarah Greenwood, in her “adult theatre” debut, allows us to genuinely empathise with Dulcie. Elodie Boal is natural and comical as both Lewis’s sister, Bev, and new migrant, Beatrice, and James Dyke – recently accepted into Queensland University of Technology’s BFA Acting course – is a local actor to keep an eye on, effortlessly comfortable in a role first performed on stage by Vince Colosimo. Although some older members of the cast are burdened with comedic characters that never quite work, all deliver skilled performances, particularly Alison Telfer McDonald as Lewis’s mother, Norma.

With the exception of a few tech issues (the sound of a violent thunderstorm curiously stops and starts, sporadically), Summer of the Aliens is polished and entirely memorable. This production is proof a collective of amateur, passionate and promising actors can not only hold together a troubled play, but can turn it into something well worth venturing outside the bubble of the state’s major theatre companies for.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Brisbane Arts Theatre, by arrangement with HLA Management present
Summer of the Aliens
By Louis Nowra
Director Susan O’Toole Cridland
Cast: Regan Lynch, Sarah Greenwood, Grant Morrison, Ben Dyson, Lindi Milbourne, Alison Telfer McDonald, Elodie Boal, Brian Bolton, James Dyke, Kath Kunde

Brisbane Arts Theatre
4 February–3 March, 2012
Bookings: 07 3369 2344 or artstheatre.com.au