Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (reviewed Tuesday 5 November, matinee)
Miles Franklin is a prominent Australian literary icon, author of My Brilliant Career and All That Swagger. Her life was as fascinating at the stories she wrote, escaping the prosaic expectations of her conventional upbringing in order to see the world she yearned to explore.
The Kingdom of Eucalypts explores Franklin’s exquisite ache to live an adventurous, intellectual life at a time when social convention made it almost impossible for a woman. It also gives the context during an era when Indigenous relations was not understood as it is today.
This production based on Alice Spigelman’s play is to be commended for being solid and competent. The lead actors who play the younger and older Franklin (Sarah Greenwood and Beth Daly, respectively) bare their souls in this story, overlapping their lines in perfect rhythm like the beating of a heart. The enunciation and costuming speaks to authority and determination, with the younger Franklin in a traditional, unfussy dress and the older Franklin in shirt and slacks. Where the younger Franklin is rueful about turning down a marriage proposal, the older Franklin is relieved that nothing got in the way of her literary ambition.
The supporting cast includes Alice Livingstone giving an authentic portrayal as Franklin’s unimpressed mother, mortified of her daughter’s unabashed audacity to spill all the family secrets in her novels. Franklin’s publisher, Inky Stephenson, is played by Lloyd Allison-Young with the jocularity of a young man with commercial interests. James Coetzee plays Edwin Bridle, a potential suitor to Franklin, with irresistible charm, making her rejection of him all the more embittered.
The dialogue at times can be a little too obvious and declarative, leaving little room for thoughtful silences and poetic subtlety. However, when you have a story this good about Miles Franklin, you don’t miss it for the world.
The Kingdom of Eucalypts is playing at Bondi Pavilion til 17 November. For tickets and showtimes go to https://www.bondipavilion.com.au/whats_on/event/the_kingdom_of_eucalypts
IMAGES:
Igor Turgin
CREDITS:
CAST
Alice Livingstone – Susannah Franklin
Beth Daly – Older Miles Franklin
Lloyd Allison-Young – Inky Stephenson
James Coetzee – Edwin Bridle
Sarah Greenwood – Young Miles Franklin
CREATIVES
Director – Moira Blumenthal
Written by – Alice Spigelman
Dramaturg – Timothy Daly
PRODUCTION
Set, Costume and Props Designer – Kate Beere
Lighting Designer – Martin Kinnane
Stage Manager/ Production Manager/ Sound Designer – Aaron Robuck
Music Segments Composed by – Lloyd Allison-Young