HOME > THEATRE >   

Kirstie McCracken.

Josh Mu and Alan Flower.

POSTED: 15 JANUARY 2012

Never Did Me Any Harm, inspired by Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap | Devised by Force Majeure | Directed by Kate Champion

Sydney Theatre Company & Force Majeure & Sydney Festival | Wharf 1, Walsh Bay, Sydney | Until 12 February

In her ‘Rehearsal Room Report’ for Never Did Me Any Harm, Caroline Baum points out, quite obviously rightly, that everyone has experienced life from at least one side of the parenting minefield.

It’s that universality of experience, as well the emotions generated, that made parenting the ultimate barbecue stopper long before debilitating petrol prices, the GFC, or debate over Ricky Ponting’s place in the Australian Test side came along.

Parenting has never been easy, but has it ever been as difficult as it is right now, when, as Baum points out, the boundaries between discipline and abuse have become so blurred?

Are ‘helicopter parents’ producing a coddled generation? Is children’s inability to deal with failure a result of our political correctness? Has childhood stopped being real fun? Are we more interested in our own gratification than our children’s long-term happiness? How should we handle issues relating to mental challenges?

That confusion about the rights and wrongs of parenting forms the core of Force Majeure’s scintillating piece of dance theatre, Never Did Me Any Harm, which opens the STC 2012 season.

It isn’t a story with a beginning, middle and end. Rather, it’s a series of poignant vignettes — sometimes deliciously funny, sometimes desperately sad, but always cutting straight to the quick of reality.

Under Kate Champion’s strong but sympathetic direction, the physicality and interpretive skills of the cast — Kristina Chan, Vincent Crowley, Marta Dusseldorp, Alan Flower, Sarah Jayne Howard, Kirstie McCracken, Heather Mitchell and Joshua Mu — create a veritable emotional rollercoaster from a text largely derived from many hours of interviews.

A blink of the eye can move the action from bristling confrontation to touching tenderness. It's an aural and visual delight.

And surely not enough praise can be heaped on the design/lighting/sound team of Geoff Cobham, Chris Petridis and Max Lyanovert.

The backyard setting is quintessentially Australian, with a distinct sense of menace added by lighting that can turn lawn into a claustrophobic cage, and a potted succulent seemingly into an intimidating spider. And then there’s the barking of dogs that must be the size of wolves.

The opening-night applause was long, loud and genuine. As it should have been for such an excellent show. Take another bow, especially Sarah Jayne Howard, who doesn't for a second allow her obviously advanced pregnancy interfere with a spirited, athletic performance.

Vincent Crowley and Alan Flower.

Kirstie McCracken.

Marta Dusseldorp, Alan Flower and Vincent Crowley.

Vincent Crowley, Sarah Jayne Howard and Heather Mitchell.

Kirstie McCracken and Vincent Crowley.

Marta Dusseldorp and Kirstie McCracken.

Alan Flower, Heather Mitchell, Vincent Crowley, Kirstie McCracken and Sarah Jayne Howard. All images © Lisa Tomasetti 2012.

Vincent Crowley and Kirstie McCracken (foreground) and Alan Flower, Sarah Jayne Howard (background).