Secrets and support

Young Bodies/Somebody’s (Yeah Nah Theatre)

Backdock Arts

September 20 – 28

Independent Theatre Company Yeah Nah’s production of Sydney playwright Miranda Michalowski’s debut one-act play “Young Bodies/Somebody’s” occurs against an almost claustrophobically-detailed domestic set in Backdock Arts’ small theatre space. The detail provides many hints as to the main characters of its soon-to-follow story… through the swimming goggles and takeaway food containers, for example, around the respective beds of very different sisters 19 year-old June (Roxanne Ruby) and 21 year-old Anna (Meg Bowden). Most provocative of all, however, are the series of mirrors linking its walls, integral to its themes and messaging as the work reflects society back upon us.

Perception is at the core of things from the initial scene which sees the girls, along with their divorced mother Dawn (Janelle Bailey), looking into the unseen mirror of the audience in overlapping commentary of the impact of having eyes on them, or not, in early signpost of the work’s layered messaging. Competitive swimmer June is preparing for a swim meet, over time outlining more and more of the intense physical, and more importantly mental sacrifices, to therefore be made towards prolonging her feeling of invincibility at being the best at butterfly. Misplaced ‘lost cause’ uni-student Anna, meanwhile is full of an unforgiving bravado that obviously belies some issues around being forced into a new reality, while mum Dawn just wants to now have a life of her own. It’s a complex dynamic, as many family relationships are, stemming from each woman’s individual issues as she struggles to make sense of herself and the world around her.

Despite the density of its themes, the new Australian work is an easy one to watch. Passage of time mentions support the audience in timeframe towards the beckoning independence to come from the girls’ move out into an apartment of their more well-off lawyer father’s assistance. And the efforts of its excellent cast bring life and energy to Michalowski’s incisive script. Bailey brings a steadying hand to things are the girls’ mother, however, the coming-of-age story is very much of June and Anna’s experiences, which is often emphasised through the commonality of the overlapping dialogue of their contrasting monologues with key unisoned words about their different, but similarly-motivated reflections upon their hidden shames.

Ruby brings a quiet and essential empathy to the determined June, obviously used to allowing her older sister the metaphoric space she demands by her mere presence. This is especially evident in her early mediator role between June and their mother Dawn, where she wisely urges June to reconsider her determined suspicions of their mother’s unseen new boyfriend Todd, conveying much about their dynamic from the outset. Bowden is a standout as Anna, delivering an authentic performance, especially in realisation of much of the story’s humour. She plays Anna both creeping home drunk and later out of her room hungover, to physical perfection, and allows for some light and shade of vulnerability beyond the boldness of Anna’s self-proclaimed empowered desire to have fun, especially in her warm words of sisterly love after secretly attending June’s swim meet against her wishes for there to be no family audience. Together with Ruby, she brings realism to both the banter and emotional support integral to the relatable relationship dynamic of sisters bonded by experiences beyond just borrowed stolen clothes and the mess of their moving lives.

Yeah Nah Theatre’s first main stage show is a fresh and punchy piece all about its women and the explicit and implicit societal pressures that come with their contemporary experience, without being preachy, such is cleverness of Michalowski slice-of-life script which, under Mik Hosking’s focussed direction, isn’t allowed to become overly indulgent in its authentic exploration of self-image, family discord, and the immense pressure to appear perfect. The resulting run time of 70 minutes, adds to the accessibility of its messaging and though not everything is fully resolved in terms of its relationships, the tenderness of how the sisters’ insecurities are handled, means that we are left knowing that all is going to be ok.