Theatre review: Sweet Pea, Explosives Factory

A group of friends gather at the home of Blondie (Julia Gasparini) for the funeral of their friend, Bean (Jacob Gamble). Bean is present not just in spirit, but physically as their body is displayed on the living room couch. The gathering is complicated by the arrival of Sweet Pea (Elliot Coleman) who has not seen any of the group for five years. The reason for Sweet Pea’s absence from the group over that time and what happened to Bean is the central mystery of the play. 

From the opening scene the importance of the Sweet Pea and Bean relationship is established. While Bean is dead to all the other characters, Sweet Pea can see an active version of them – but whether this is a drug-induced dream state or whether Bean appears as a ghost is unclear. Bean serves as Banquo’s ghost, reminding Sweet Pea of their guilty past.

While having Bean on stage interacting with Sweet Pea is effective, they have too much of a regular presence in the action. Fewer appearances would have made it more impactful. 

There are nine characters in the play. Each of them has their own story and there is a complicated web of relationships between them all. It is to Lachlan Seal’s credit that the script manages to make all these characters distinct and interesting. Having all of them known by nicknames (or with names that could be nicknames) makes identification easier.

The cast work well together and create a feeling that this is a close group of friends, but also one in which each member brings their own baggage and motivations. Seal and Kirsty Wilson’s co-direction makes this complicated staging go smoothly and at a good pace. 

Read: Theatre review: Your Name Means Dream, Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre

Sweet Pea covers a lot of ideas and complex material, including miscarriage, suicide, drug use and grief, but Seal’s script deals with this sensitively, with the use of black humour a highlight. Though the cast is engaging, there is a little too much going on to give all the issues the attention they deserve, and it would have been better to have had a narrower focus. For instance, all the side stories take up most of the first half of the play, which leaves Sweet Pea as somewhat of a peripheral character until the concluding scenes.

Sweet Pea by Lachlan Seal
Explosives Factory
Writer, Co-Director, Co-Producer: Lachlan Seal (under Mover’s Call Theatre Company)
Co-Director: Kirsty Wilson
Co-Producer: Chanda Anderson Prior (under Mover’s Call Theatre Company)
Co-Producer: Gemma Caruana (under Mover’s Call Theatre Company)
Stage Manager: Lani Mason
Cast: Chanda Anderson Prior, Charlie Boscolo, Elliot Coleman, Olivia Fynmore-Green, Jacob Gamble, Julia Gasparini, Zakary Pietsch, Megan Scolyer-Gray, Lachlan Seal
Understudies: Hugo Gutteridge, Ella Perkins, Ned Standford

Tickets: $20-$35

Sweet Pea will be performed until 9 November 2024 at Rear Laneway 67 Inkerman Street, St Kilda, Victoria.