Review: THIEVING BOY/LIKE STARS IN MY HANDS

These two short plays by Tim Conigrave were first produced in July 1997, at the CUB Malthouse Theatre by the then-Playbox Theatre Company, under the direction of David Bell. I was lucky enough to have seen their return season, in January 1998, as part of the Midsumma Festival; and retain fond memories of their emotional impact and resonance.

Now, ten years later, Thieving Boy and Like Stars in My Hand have been restaged; this time by Fly-On-The-Wall Theatre at La Mama's Carlton Courthouse, again for Midsumma, under the direction of Robert Chuter.

Conigrave, who died in 1994 of an AIDS-related illness, was an actor, playwright and activist best known today for his remarkable memoir, Holding the Man, which details the 15-year love affair between he and his partner, John Caleo.

(In case you've been living under a rock, Griffin Theatre Company's acclaimed production of Holding the Man will be staged in Melbourne in a few months time, which makes this revival of Conigrave's plays even more timely.)

Of the two works, the first, Thieving Boy, was my favourite when I first saw it in 1998. In retrospect, my attraction for it was due in part, I think, to a crush I had at the time for a knockabout young sex-worker who I was seeing a bit of, and who reminded me of one of the play's main characters. Ten years later, it's now the second work, the more ambitious, impressionistic Like Stars in My Hands, which resonates for me more strongly...

Both plays are simply produced, with minimal set dressing: projection and a few props helping to flesh out the scenes. Performances are passionate, though not always entirely appropriate to the material the actors are working with (see below for details); and while the lighting predominantly counterbalances the lack of set dressing, it can't always do so. Additionally, the short production time afforded Chuter and his cast, which he refers to in the programme, shows in a few clumbsily blocked scenes. Opening night jitters also distracted on occasion, but overall, I thought most of the cast across the two plays rose well to the occasion.

Thieving Boy, as detailed in chapter nine of Holding the Man, had already been extensively workshopped prior to Conigrave's death.

The play tells the story of Moxy (Daniel McBurnie) a 22-year old inmate of Malabar Training Centre at Long Bay Jail, who is let out on day release in order to enable him to visit his dying father, Brian (Chris Gaffney). Waiting for Moxy on the outside are his mum, Jude (Francesca Walters) his little sister, Tracy (Stephanie Lillis) and unwitting ex-boyfriend, law student Tom (Heath Miller) who we first meet while he is working as a department store Santa, drying his costume after an incident with an excitable three year old's bladder.

It's a simple, naturalistic story; the drama propelled by Moxy's complex relationship with his father, his feelings for Tom, and his own carefully guarded emotions. The play's emotional punch on opening night was slightly reduced due to an at-times uninspired performance by McBurnie, whose accent and bearing as the cocky, working class Moxy failed to thoroughly convince; while the spartan production meant that, in some scenes where they were peripheral to the action, actors stood about awkwardly. Some 20 minutes into the play, however, the cast clicked, and by its final scenes I was wiping away tears. (And to be fair to McBurnie, who I spoke to after the show, his performance on opening night was affected by his fretting for the first 20 minutes or so that he'd forgotten his director's instructions about his character's signature gesture upon first walking on stage.)

Overall, Thieving Boy remains a simple yet powerful play about grief, love and family; themes which are explored in greater detail, and to better effect, in Conigrave's second play, to which we returned after the interval.

Like Stars in My Hands was incomplete at the time of Conigrave's death, resulting in some substancial changes to the script by editor Tony Ayres.

A meditation on love and loss, it's a considerably more complex work than the kitchen-sink drama of Thieving Boy; and focuses on the complex relationship between Simon (a superb performance by David Forster) his lover Marcello (a understated Luke Arnold) and their friend Jimmy, an up-and-coming commercial photographer (Gary Abrahams).

Simon is dying, but doesn't want Marcello to be lonely when he's gone. He's identified Jimmy as a potential new boyfriend for Marcello, and goes about setting them up together despite the jealousy and anguish this causes him. Prickly, demanding and difficult, Simon is a complex character whose fear of his impending death is tempered by his conversations with Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god of writing and beginnings and the play's fourth character, voiced by Francesca Waters.

Conigrave's grasp of theatre's visual language is considerably more developed in this play than in Thieving Boy, as typified by its opening scene; which shows Simon standing naked in a bath, after which he is tenderly dried by his lover. Already Simon is isolated, the scene tells us; and while it shows us the strength of Marcello's love, it also tells us that, already, at least physically, Simon is relegating their relationship to the past, as his immediate concerns - death, and its impact on his lover - come to the fore.

In this play, the production's stark set comes into its own, thanks to a beautiful set of projections by Ian de Gruchy which enrich the drama and flesh out the proceedings, suggesting at various times the industrial confines of Jimmy's warehouse apartment, the night sky, a gay and lesbian dance party, and the half-world in which Simon's conversations with Ganesh take place.

Direction and performances are excellent, with the emotional intensity of the play's relationships displayed through a handful of passionate sexual encounters as well as by the emotional fireworks of Conigrave's dialogue. The play doesn't flinch away from the ugly side of dying, nor from the urgency of need; typified by two wonderfully staged, concurrent scenes where we see Marcello cleaning Simon's bedsores, wincing in pain at the hurt the process causes his lover; followed by a passionate and sensual sexual encounter.

Considered as a whole, Like Stars in My Hands is a more complex, confronting and rewarding work than Thieving Boy; although like Conigrave's earlier work, by its conclusion tears were once again freely coursing down my face.

It seems to me, in retrospect, that perhaps a little more care and time has gone into Like Stars in My Hands than on Thieving Boy, but some clever touches ensure connections between both plays (such as a cameo by Forster as Simon, clutching a Minnie Mouse doll, in a hospital scene in Thieving Boy).

Despite some minor flaws, these were well-realised and deeply affecting productions, reminding us once again of the major theatrical talent Conigrave would have undoubtedly become had his life not been cut so tragically short.

Fly-On-The Wall Theatre's production of Thieving Boy and Like Stars in My Hands
Now showing at La Mama's Carlton Courthouse Theatre, 349 Drummon Street, Carlton, until Saturday February 2.
Bookings: 9347 6142 www.lamama.com.au