STRANGERS IN BETWEEN at the Golden Goose Theatre

★★★★

“Murphy has an ear for brilliant one liners and non-sequiturs, and a piercing insight into human contradictions.”

“Strangers In Between” premiered in Sydney, Australia in 2005. Not that long ago in the great scheme of things, but it has already acquired the sheen of a period piece. To describe it as a ‘classic’ might be going a bit too far, yet it might only be a matter of time such is the astute personal observation and grasp of characterisation. Primarily a coming-of-age play that explores the highs and lows of growing up gay in twenty-first century Australia, Tommy Murphy’s three-hander extends beyond demographics and speaks to ‘everyman’. There is a refreshing inclusivity in the writing that, stemming from the heart of the piece, reaches out and embraces the universal themes of friendship, fear, family and other ‘f’ words.

Shane (Alex Ansdell) is young, ingenuous, desperately naïve and, well, simply desperate. He has washed up in Kings Cross Sydney, having run away from his hometown deep in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. Nervous and paranoid, he has not managed to escape the shadows of violence and abuse from which he appears to be fleeing. Working in a bottle shop, he strikes up a friendship with two contrasting men: the self-assured, cool-headed Will (Matthew Mitcham) and the more mature, witty and camp Peter (Stephen Connery-Brown). Shane has no filters but, despite stretching the patience of the other two, he becomes adopted into a new-found, surrogate family that he evidently hasn’t had the comfort of before now.

There are twists, of course. One in particular that you don’t see coming, even sitting up close in the intimate space of the Golden Goose theatre. Like everything else in the piece, it is not over-egged. It all works on a subliminal level, the gentleness being a smoke screen for the realistically harsh issues bubbling underneath. Murphy has an ear for brilliant one liners and non-sequiturs, and a piercing insight into human contradictions. Adam Spreadbury-Maher returns to direct, having steered it successfully from the King’s Head into the West End in 2016 and 2017. His staging is a pitch-perfect complement (and compliment) to the writing, along with Richard Lambert’s lighting that mirrors the light and shade of the text, enhancing the mood and sense of location.

“A real and rare find that must be seen”

Moreover, the performances are what bring the play fully to life. Spreadbury-Maher has brought together a formidable trio of actors whose chemistry creates an electrifying ménage à trois. For a professional debut, Alex Ansdell excels as the hyper Shane; jittery, paranoid and certainly damaged. Switching from the inane to the explicit, the fawning to the abusive, Ansdell has a command of the text that belies his experience. (Who else could string together the subject of coat hangers and anal sex so naturally into the same sentence?). Matthew Mitcham, as Will, flawlessly depicts the emotions triggered by this infuriating yet loveable new-boy-in-town, wavering between attraction and repulsion, ultimately slipping into the mantle of brotherly love. Mitcham also doubles up as Ben, the abusive brother from whom Shane is supposedly escaping, but I shall say no more about this dramatic conceit for fear of spoilers.

Stephen Connery-Brown, as Peter the older man, reacts to Shane with a heartfelt, honest and humorous affection. A quiet and quite brilliant portrayal of a character who defies stereotype. There is a lustful twinkle in his eye as he takes Shane under his wing, without a sense of being predatory. Teasing with tenderness he gives an air of being able to take or leave Shane but we sense a paternal longing. It is testament to the writing and performances that these personalities can mix this yearning for surrogate family ties with sexual desire, and yet avoid any hint of seediness.

“Strangers In between” is above all a character led piece; the beauty of it lying in the fact it tackles the issues without having to hold up placards. Another sense in which it can be described as a period piece – it revisits a style of theatre that is becoming increasingly rare. The skill is innate, and the audience is allowed to soak up the experience of their own free will with no pointers, extravagant trickery or didacticism. It is an honest, rite-of-passage story, perhaps a little too gentle in its conclusion, but wickedly funny and acute in its observations. A real and rare find that must be seen.