Kate Mulvany’s autobiographical play The Seed had its first iteration in 2004 for Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre. Mulvany had just returned from a trip to Nottingham to spend time with her Irish family when Belvoir offered her a commission to write a play. She was in the process of discovering that the serious health problems that had plagued her since infancy were a direct result of her father’s exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. The Seed was planted and a brilliant new West Australian play was about to bloom.
She was unprepared for the wide-reaching reception her play received; it touched a chord with a lot of people about the impact of war on veterans and their families, and the secrets that are covered up – by governments and by families.
This 2024 production with a freshly tweaked script weaves together excellent writing with mostly solid performances, evocative multimedia by Jessica Russell and strong direction by Matt Edgerton to create a taut and surprisingly funny family drama. It is a story that is as pertinent and relevant today as it was 20 years ago and is made all the more poignant by the inclusion of Mulvany’s sister Tegan in the role of Rose.
The plot revolves around a family reunion. It’s Guy Fawkes day (5 November) and Danny (Steve Turner) travels from Australia to Nottingham in England with his daughter Rose (Tegan Mulvany) to meet her Irish grandfather Brian (Geoff Kelso) for their shared birthday. Rose is a journalist looking for a good story about her family, and full of questions for her grandfather – a hard talking IRA sympathiser/activist who appears to be still very much involved in the cause.Â
Brian’s dialogue is superbly crafted and Kelso’s execution of his character is poetry in motion – you can’t take your eyes off him as he struts the stage, throwing down hilariously acerbic lines while dominating his traumatised son and confused granddaughter. The Seed is worth seeing if for nothing else than to witness Kelso’s performance. He’s a veteran actor at the top of his game and he plays the old rebel Brian with obvious relish, great command and hilarious comic timing.
Rose vacillates between being drawn in by her grandfather’s rough charm and repelled by his brutal honesty, casual violence and lawlessness. His behaviour is outrageous; he’s a charismatic bully who insists on dragging his jetlagged son and granddaughter to the pub, tries to give them drugs he claims his other sons are selling and also attempts to enlist Rose in the nefarious ‘family business’.
His son Danny is a broken man. He’s a shell of his former self and intensely uneasy in his father’s presence. Yet his close bond with his daughter gets him through and their concern for each other is genuinely touching. Rose hovers over him during a ‘white out’ brought on by his father’s bullying, and we learn of the harrowing experience of cancer she experienced during her early childhood.
Turner and Mulvaney nail the abiding sense of love, trust and concern between father and daughter. One senses a lot of work has gone into establishing those deep father/daughter bonds in the rehearsal room.
Turner’s portrayal of Danny is a sensitive and nuanced portrait of a war veteran with PTSD. He doesn’t hit a false note. His face and body convey an intense inner struggle, and his fearful response to his domineering father is heartbreaking to witness. Mulvaney has moments of strength as Rose. Her opening scene with Turner is powerful and captivating, and she launches the narrative with confidence.
Later she delivers Rose’s comedic lines with a sly, subtle humour and also finds a touching vulnerability and humanity in her character. The scene in which she reveals to her grandfather that she’s barren, is painful to watch, powerfully delivered and a reminder of the great losses this innocent young woman has had to endure.
The Seed is an important Australian play – one to watch if you haven’t seen it before. It was born from a lived experience of the horrific intergenerational legacy of war and is steeped in the complexity of deep familial love and the secrets and lies that threaten to unravel that love. It’s masterfully written, well directed and performed, with sophisticated multimedia and sound design by Jessica Russell and Mark Haslam that skilfully evokes Rose’s childhood memories of crayfishing in Geraldton with her dad.
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This production is everything one looks for in great Australian theatre. It has tremendous emotional affect, an acute sense of social justice, compassionately drawn characters and a wicked ear for great dialogue.
The Seed by Kate Mulvany
Black Swan Theatre Company
Subiaco Theatre Centre
Director: Matt Edgerton
Set Designer: Zoë Atkinson
Costume Designer, Set Realiser: Charlotte Meagher
Lighting Designer: Lucy Birkinshaw
Composer and Sound Designer: Ben Collins
Video Designer: Mark Haslam
Videographer: Jessica Russell
Dialect Coach: Luzita Fereday
Stage Manager: Katy Malacari
Assistant Stage Manager: Shannen Moulton
Cast: Geoff Kelso, Steve Turner, Tegan Mulvany
The Seed will be performed until 17 November 2024.
