The Bluff | The Drawer Productions
When upstanding citizen and man about town, Charles Fortsmith goes missing, tensions arise that threaten to tear his small town apart. As the stress of trying to find him begins to unravel the once shiny façade of the community, long-held secrets come to light, and many of the residents’ lives will never be the same again.
Welcome to The Bluff, the latest production from local theatre company The Drawer Productions. Written by Ada Lukin and directed Oscar O’Brien, The Bluff is an Australian Gothic play that utilises all of the tropes of the genre to full effect to explore the impacts of a tragic event on a small community, the burden of guilt and shame, the effects of gossip and rumour and the very question of our own existence. There are marshlands, apparitions, isolation, guilt and so, so many secrets; all the good gothic stuff. And this is all finely balanced by enough light moments that we don’t get sucked into complete maudlin Wuthering Heights territory.
The Bluff is the most ‘traditional’ theatre piece I’ve seen by The Drawer Productions’ after their two previous productions Shelter and Hello, Stranger! utilised immersive and promenade styles to great effect. While I missed being able to physically enter and explore the world they created, playwright Ada Luckin has once again has created a rich gothic world full of secrets that I wanted to get lost in.
Side note: Australian Gothic is a genre rife with potential for our nation’s theatre makers. Yes please to more stories that explore on the dark side of human nature against the sense of danger, isolation and the unknown that comes from our vast barren landscapes, and the horror and violence of our colonial past. While it leaned more to the side of a traditional gothic play, marshes, seaside towns, apparitions and all, The Bluff captured so much of what is captivating about this genre and I hope it inspires The Drawer Productions and other local companies to create more Australian Gothic works that explore and tear at the threads of who we are.
All images by Felix Lovell
Lukin’s script captivates immediately as we are thrown into the small town of Inverloch and introduced to many of the town’s residents played by Pip Boyce, Paul Adams, Sandra Harman and Tom Pocilujko. Boyce shines in the central role of Mary, wife of the soon to be missing Charles. Before the events unfold, she’s running the local clothes store and is seemingly untouchable as the centre of the town’s gossip and rumour mill. After Charles goes missing, she’s the poster child for how everything can change for you in a moment; full of grief, desperation and bad decisions. It’s a meaty role and Boyce manages to make Mary feel real and relatable, despite making some questionable decisions through the course of the play.
The other actors take on two characters throughout the play mostly to great effect, differentiate their two roles through the use of accents, costume and physicality. Adams particularly impressed with the range shown between the characters of The Father, the moral centre of Inverloch, and Matthew, the town drunk. Pocilujko admiringly switched quickly between John, the only boy in town to have the honour of being kicked out of the youth group, and Ray, the best friend of Charles and leader of the search party throughout the play. Harman gives a moving turn as Esther, the focal point of much of the town’s gossip, who throws herself into the search after Charles goes missing, as well as taking on the brief role Lady #1, who works at Mary’s store.
The uniformly solid performances of the cast bring extra dimensions to all of the characters, which was a joy to watch. Director O’Brien, aided by sound design by Ben Lynskey and Rosemary Richardson, also crafts an impressive tension as the stakes escalate, particularly in the stronger second half. On top of this, the script is full of deliciously mysterious connections between each of them which is slowly revealed throughout the show.
Without giving away too much, the mystery of the disappearance of Charles is solved immediately, and what plays out is a far more interesting exploration of what this means to those in the town who both know and don’t know what happened. Over the course of the play, the choices of some in the town play an increasingly large impact on others and Charles’ disappearance unearths sides of the community that they never expected. Unexpected new connections are formed between residents that help them confront both personal demons and past traumas. A particular highlight is the relationship that Adams and Pocilujko bring between Matthew and John, with their scenes bringing both the laughs and the feels to all of their interactions.
All images by Felix Lovell
While there is a lot to love in The Bluff, at times the play leaned a little too much into the mystery and secrets between the characters for my tastes, particularly with an ending that was left intentionally vague and didn’t pack the punch it could have.
The show is also let down slightly by a few confusing design and directing choices, particularly in the first half, which can easily be refined in future runs to help the show reach its full potential. Having the actors play multiple roles left me questioning who was who a few times in the first half. This was particularly the case with Harman’s two roles of Esther and Lady #1, where almost the same costuming was utilised for both characters. Potentially Lady #1 could be replaced with an offstage voice, as this is only a small role in the play and it was somewhat confusing to tell her apart from Esther at the start as we were introduced to all of the characters in rapid succession. The production also utilised a static set design, which meant that a few of the scene changes were also hard to follow, particularly one following the discovery of the disappearance of Charles. This could be easily fixed though with additional dialogue and props to establish the context at the beginning of the scene rather than the end.
The Bluff is another impressive debut work from one of my favourite local theatre companies and a great addition to the growing Australian Gothic genre. In it, The Drawer Productions have created another world for audiences to get lost in. More than that though, they have developed a gorgeous character study on how tragedy reveals our true nature to ourselves and those around us. At its most effective it is a powerful meditation on the impact of gossip, rumours and secrets on small town, how far some will go to save face and even the meaning of life. While it is slightly uneven in parts, the uniformly great performances by the cast help it to transcend its faults and showcase the works’ true potential, leaving the audience on their feet after the final scene. With a few tweaks it could be a classic, so I look forward to seeing where the company takes it in future runs.
