The cast of April De Angelis’ Jumpy did the best they could with the text they were given. But overall the play was unsuccessful, due to weaknesses in the writing.
The play had its moments: Marina Prior’s Frances bringing in the most laughs and one-liners, a certain kind of honesty coming through in the character of Mark played by David Tredinnick. There’s no denying the skill of Jane Turner in her STC debut, she’s funny, and she can really embody that whole middle-aged ennui thing, but still the play fell flat. It’s not because of the play’s younger performers either: it was Brenna Harding’s theatre debut, but not her first time in the shows of a teenager trying to find herself.
Pamela Rabe, why do they need British accents? The undercurrent of the destabilising impact of the GFC may not have played as well here, but it was still a fixture of the early ‘10s: change a few references and bin the Sunday Mail and we’ve got ourselves an Australian edge. And yes, it was entertaining to see Turner so visibly disconcerted by the changing set (perfectly executed by Michael Hankin) – but it was a little bit of comedy in what was a mostly unfunny, muddled two hours, where plot lines came and went, never pursued quite to their full potential.
