Fury

The space we see first is cold, professional almost – a far cry from the refuge that father, husband and writer Patrick (a wonderfully sardonic Robert Menzies) claims to find there. The marbled floor and shapely modern concrete divides suggest success, but nothing familial. Aesthetically though, it certainly gives a sense of success – the appearance of it, and it is appearances that drive Joanna Murray-Smith's new family thriller.

Patrick and Alice (Sarah Peirse) appear successful, begrudgingly happy in an intellectual sense, and like the kind of free-thinking left-leaning parents that would raise a similarly talented and intelligent child. A seemingly innocent enough student journalist (Geraldine Hakewill) enters the fold, the actions of their school-aged only child Joe bring the appearance of their parenting into question, those questions are asked by a fellow student's parents, by a teacher, and all the while two chairs move about the stage – Andrew Upton's direction presenting scenes as a series of interrogations. Through them, the hidden architecture of these appearances come to the fore and the heightened sense of construction makes its presence most felt in the disconnect between character and dialogue, each person speaking not the words they want to say, but the words they would say if the appearance they built was flawless.

It's a strangely stiff effect, but it works in favour of the thrill.

Sydney Theatre Company Wharf 1 to Saturday 8 June