A Man from Mukinupin

Saw this MTC play at Sumner Theatre in the playhouse yesterday, by Dorothy Hewitt.

Despite being heralded as a great Australian theatrical creation, the play felt rather like a conjured up pieces of information - of course, all of them relating to this little country town, but seemed rather random between themselves. This resulted in me wondering where the story is leading to at the half-time. During the 2nd half, the play did tie its loose ends together, however it seems rather contrived, and the result was both puzzling and comical. Perhaps, had the play trimmed itself a little to allow more character and plot development, had it actually been a book where people can read and absorb rather than feeling being "rushed" to the conclusion, would have made this a truly deep, meaningful and great work. I wonder how much of its failure to captivate the audience can be attributed to the playwright, and how much to the director and his/her interpretation and presentation.

The bright side of the play, though, was the excellent sets. White sand, a real fire, a "magic" caravan that all characters can mysteriously appear and disappear from, and a rainy scene, all on stage, are but a few. Not to mention the 2 main female and male casts were playing 2 different characters each - which, one wonders at the speed of their clothes change, behind the magic caravan. The use of curtains as a prop was a clever design, for it allowed artistic use of the shadows and created the right atmosphere for the many of the settings in the play.

Overall, an experimental piece of work... but it would seem to me that the effort in making the technological marvel on stage has perhaps compromised the depth of the story... and for any play, no flashy settings can replace a strong plot and good character development...