Chalkface, Sydney Theatre Company, Playhouse, Canberra Theatre, 9-12 Nov

 

Angela Beitzen has been working fairly consistently n Australian theatre over the last few years - plays like "Mortido" and "The Dark Room" exploring the darker sides of human nature. This year she's apparently flipped the switch to something lighter, with a comedy set in staff room of a public primary school, taking place over a school year as the teachers battle with overly sensative parents, officious admin staff, the overly-enthusiastic new staff member and the still-developing brains they're meant to be instructing. It's a slightly exagerated farce with runs speedily throgh triumps, disasters and an eventual explosive ending (with a slightly overly-long denoument) - fortunately it moves fast enough that you can't think too much about some of the more absurd contrivances (including a 12 year old who develops nuclear fusion in class). I'm usually a little bit of a nitpicker about writers who don't normaly write farce dabbling in it (it's a challenging form to get right) but this didn't trigger my nerves too badly. 

The cast of six mesh well into an ensemble. Ana Maria Bello (stepping in for an unwell Catherine McClements) is our point-of-view character, combining cynicism with engagement in a way that helps her grow on us thorughout the show. Stephanie Somerville as the newbie is suitably suniny and goofy up until the point where she inevitably cracks - she manages to avoid the risk of making her character appear too dumb to live. Ezra Juanta and Susan Prior are sorta playing one-joke characters but they play those one jokes well. As the two nemeses, Nathan O'Keefe and Michelle Ny provide suitably uptight prickliness for the rest of the cast to push against. 

Jessica Arthur directs with pace and clarity, giving the show a good running energy. Alisa Paterson's set is suitably grotty and run-down, whle her costumes give her lots of room to manouvre, from the teacher's regular daily gear to the explosion of ridiculou Book-week outfits. All in all this is a good solid Australian comedy to see out the year.