Fry, fry again: Keep chipping away and you’ll get there in the end
Occasionally a piece of theatre sneaks up on you, in a pleasant way.
Such is the strategy behind the charming and timely Australian play The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race by Melanie Tait. Cousins Nikki (Rachel Gordon) and Penny (Libby Munro) may have grown up together in a small town, but that’s where the similarities end.
Penny has returned from the big smoke to become Appleton’s new GP, and she wants to solve the world’s inequalities while she’s at it. Nikki never left, and is raising her boys as a single mum. Every year, she looks forward to the town show, where a $200 prize awaits the winner of the women’s potato race. Proud feminist Penny is aghast to learn the men’s event carries a purse five times the size, and sets up a GoFundMe campaign to even the playing field, dividing the town as a result.
Besties Bev (Barbara Lowing) and Barb (Valerie Bader) are pillars of their community, and have run the local show society for decades. (In Appleton, the men are noticeably AWOL when it comes to pulling their weight). Barb loves Australian Story, and encourages the feisty, salty Bev to imagine herself being interviewed for the show, as a form of therapy. Rania (Natassia Halabi) binds the sub-plots together. Rania and her daughter arrived in Australia as Syrian refugees, and have been working hard to integrate in a place where old-fashioned views die hard.
Tait offers all five roles fantastic material to work with, and the entire cast delivers. With a knowing look or scowl, Lowing punctuates every line, and owns each of her scenes. Munro and Gordon have each other’s measure as the town and country cousins who know exactly how to push each other’s buttons, but also deeply care about each other. Halabi’s Rania is wise and warm, providing an intersectional context for a discussion of gender roles in regional Australia.
In a play brimming with heart, it is Bader’s Barb who breaks bread with both sides of the prize money debate, offering humorous and poignant perspectives on women’s rights, and her own journey to live a meaningful life. (Remarkably, Bader was an 11th hour inclusion to the production, not that you’d know it).
What shines through The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race is its efficiency. The writing is punchy, and Priscilla Jackman’s affectionate direction keeps the pace. The jokes flow freely, and almost all of them land. Brady Watkins’s sunny, perky sound design is a lot of fun, and Michael Scott-Mitchell’s clever set design provides simple, effective solutions to the regularly changing scenery. At 90 minutes with no interval, the production is a rare display of theatrical restraint – every element feels just right.
The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race achieves what its creators intend – it reveals people we can relate to, and root for, in a town that feels familiar. And on the eve of a historic and contested referendum, there are other parallels about the pursuit of change, and the courage and faith required to get it over the line.
The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race plays at the Bille Brown Theatre until October 28.
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