Review: CATALPA

This one man show, written by Irish playwright Donal O'Kelly and performed by Cork-born Melburnian Des Fleming, is a cinematically-structured exploration of a remarkable historical event: the rescue of six Fenian prisoners from an English prison in Fremantle, WA, in 1876.

The six men, soldiers in the English occupying forces, had been convicted of treason for their involvment with the pro-independence Irish Republican Brotherhood, and transported to Australia. Over the next ten years, the plan to spring them from the penal colony, on board the whaling ship Catalpa, captained by George Anthony, was engineered.

The play opens with Fleming playing a struggling screenplay writer who has just fumbled an all-important meeting with a group of producers. In frustration, he presents the pitch he should have made: talking through and acting out the settings, scenes and characters of his screenplay-within-a-play about the rescue by the Catalpa.

From describing wideshots to sudden cuts; from a seabird circling above New Bedford, Massachusetts to Captain Anthony's lonely wife, and the morally upright captain himself; Fleming plays every character, even, at one point, a whale. It's a demanding performance, and Fleming rises well to the occasion; assisted throughout by the simple set design, striking lighting by Bronwyn Pringle, and a live score by Wally Gunn incorporating loops and samples, a record player, and a piano at which Gunn is seated throughout the performance.

While Fleming doesn't quite convince in every role, lacking the subtle emotional shading that the play at times requires, his performance throughout is a sterling one; while the script is never less than engaging: lyrical, poetic and imaginative. O'Kelly's writing successfully plays on both cinematic convention (such as a storm in whose clouds are seen the vengeful face of Captain Anthony's mother-in-law, at whose death-bed he swore never again to set out to sea) and the narrative freedom of the theatre. The complexity and intelligence of the script can be seen in its use of peripheral characters, such as a French maid in Fremantle, who seems incidental and almost unnecessary when first introduced, but who is later shown to play a valuable role in the dramatic denoument post the prisoners' liberation.

A complex, well-structured and fascinating play about a remarkable voyage and the equally remarkable people who participated in it; strongly performed and definitely recommended.

Catalpa
At the Brunswick Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre
Corner Sydney and Glenlyon Roads, Brunswick
Until May 18