Unfinished Works

Abstraction, expression, and the artist's quest for honest representation — it's with these brush-strokes of gravitas and intellectual history that Unfinished Works paints its story. The new play, however, doesn't lose itself to the idealistic world entirely. Rooted in the discussion is art's reality as a resource: economic value, personal expression, a job, and a dream. For some, it all comes down to disinterested preference, as when Paula Martin (played by Deborah Galanos) states "I like this red part here". Is any role that art plays inherently 'better' than any other? It demonstrates playwright Thomas De Angelis' skill that he avoids idealistic extremes and concretes such an abstract discussion.

Deborah Galanos and Rhett Walton both give stunning, natural performances, the bastions of upper-middle-class and baby-boomer sensibility. It's a joy to watch them expound their ethical systems, bred utterly by the world's realities without the ideals found in the artistic genius or Gen Y. On the other side, Lucy Goelby (as Frank Ralco, the artist) and Contessa Treffone (as Isabel Martin, aspiring artist) illustrate the romanticised notion of art. They harbour desires for truth and sincerity without a price-tag.

The minimal set resembles an unconstructed warehouse (an unfinished work in itself) and doubles as a studio and a $5.2 million house in the Eastern 'burbs. The set design's intelligence bleeds throughout the show's direction, with Clemence Williams making a mark in her first year out of NIDA's directing course.

With all this said, the work's only obstacle is its ambition. It is close on two hours without intermission, and at times seems like a scene could be boiled down a little more. To be honest, it aims for the stars and lands just short. Just short of the stars, though, is a formidable landing for the collaboration by two new professionals on an intelligent, thought-provoking new play.