★★★★☆ A funny, touching and sophisticated new play from a bright, young Australian talent, Christopher Harley.

Ensemble Theatre, Sydney
October 21, 2015

Figuring out a new way of exploring those most timeless (and easily hackneyed) of themes, love and loss, is no easy task, yet Sydney playwright Christopher Harley’s insightful and impressively polished new play, Blood Bank, offers a quirky, touching and highly original route down this well-trodden path.

In the sterile yet emotionally charged environment of a hospital waiting room, a woman doggedly attempts to engage a distracted man in over-friendly banter. From this unassuming beginning a vividly detailed narrative emerges, with a complex but meticulously considered tangle of intersecting stories. At the core of this play is something profound and universal: the weight of our regrets; fear of our own mortality; the pain of grief and loss; the giddy excitement of discovering feelings and the injustice of a stolen future. However Harley packages these rather solemn undercurrents in a shell of bright, effervescent humour that gives the dialogue an immensely compelling authenticity. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, ripe with innuendo and silly colloquialisms, peppered with expletives, but within that there are moments of pure poetry, beautifully judged and deeply felt.

To the credit of both Harley and veteran director Anthony Skuse, the idiosyncrasies of the central characters have been fine-tuned in the way that can only be achieved through closely working with the actors, playing to their strengths and crafting the nuances of the dialogue and delivery until they become innate and personal. Gabrielle Scawthorn, an experienced comedienne and comedy writer herself, gives the character of Abbey an immediately rewarding extroverted personality. At times brassy and even obnoxious, Abbey is delightfully crass, chaotic, but also heartbreakingly sincere. Tom Stokes, playing both brothers Michael and Justin, finds subtle but distinctive traits in these two characters that illuminates the shifting flow of the narrative as it skips between past and present. On a knife edge Stokes is able to move between the confident and collected Justin and his anxious, guilt-wracked brother, although at times these transitions, marked by a quick change into winter coats, were a little clunky and lacking in the finesse this script deserves.

Tobiyah Stone Feller’s simple, clean-lined set is an ideal and unobtrusive backdrop, but also provides a perfect canvas for Tim Hope’s projections. These accompany flashes of childhood memories and add a texture and tangibility to this subplot that cleverly roots it to the on-stage action.

As with any newly penned play, Blood Bank could benefit from a small amount of pruning, and the role of the Nurse felt at times like an unnecessary addition. Meredith Penman does what she can with the role, which has some nice moments as she offers words of sage wisdom in between clichéd complaints about being overworked. This character is also given a personal tragedy, but it is only lightly touched upon, and compared to the rich depth and pathos of Abbey, Justin and Michael, the Nurse’s presence at times feel abrasive to the central plot. But overwhelmingly this is a work of substantial worth and sophistication. Sydney is a city that can boast a wealth of blisteringly talented, young theatre-makers – Kip Williams, Nakkiah Lui and Ralph Myers to name just a few – and Christopher Harley is definitely a talent worthy to be counted among them. 

Ensemble Theatre present Blood Bankuntil November 22.

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