After The End
Written by Dennis Kelly
Directed by Felicity Nicol
The TAP Gallery in Darlinghurst
is a mismatch hub of both static and performing art. It’s where emerging
artists of any persuasion have chance to showcase their work without the costs
(and often limitations) of a commercial space. The small area is
highly conducive to the play’s setting – a bomb shelter - and theme: survival
after an attack.
A nuclear attack on the city.A personal attack on
another’s beliefs.A vicious sexual attack.An internal attack on oneself. As the
synopsis asks:“The end is nigh.Will you
survive?What will happen After the End?”
Louise (Rebecca Martin) and Mark (Drew Wilson) are
co-workers and perhaps the only survivors after a nuclear bomb went off outside
the pub they were in. Thankfully, or perhaps suspiciously, Mark has a Cold-War
bunker to which he carries an unconscious Louise. Once she comes around, the
pair explores the evening’s events as well as their past interactions with each
other. Comments flippantly thrown are magnified in the circumstances and what
may once have been easy to ignore, can now mean the difference between life and
death.
As the pair walks the tightrope of trust, questions are
raised…and I’m still not quite sure that they’re ever answered. Regardless,
Martin and Wilson seem perfectly at ease on the stage, tackling Dennis Kelly’s
tense subject matter and director Felicity Nicol’s confronting action with a
steely determination and resolve that is reflected in their characters.
