Punch Lines Missing

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday September 30, 2008

Reviewed by Stephen Dunne

THEATRE

THE STALLION OF DEATH

Darlinghurst Theatre,

September 27

Until October 18

PITY poor Buck (Gibson Nolte), a starving teller of bush yarns who is so hungry he has had to boil his saddle for food and is bereft of transport since his horse died.

He is discovered by a billabong next to two strange brothers, both called Jack, who remember his allegedly hilarious tales of yesteryear.

In the next scene, Buck meets the rich, nubile Gemima (Kate Worsley) in a paddock. She and her family are hosting two bush poets of unfixed reputation and ability, and between them Buck and Gemima invent and embroider their own tall tale, which gives Drew Fairley's play its title.

Fairley's previous genre-comedy efforts, such as Bangers And Mash and The No Chance In Hell Hotel, had the benefits of tight point-of-view, good jokes and strong understanding of the satiric territory (cop shows, detectives, hard-bitten romance, noir generally).

This play is trying to take on the Australia of the 1890s and the creation of legend by bush balladeers, but the result is an unfunny and overlong mish-mash of weak material. The talented cast (also Fairley, Sean Lynch and Diane Smith) perform it with that peculiar, speedy hysteria that can indicate a lack of confidence in the material that they are spouting. In this case, they are right to feel that way.

Fairley, who also directs, mentions in his program note that the text has been through 10 drafts. The effort is admirable, but the work still isn't ready for a paying audience.

There is a stuck-on framing device featuring 1980s schoolchildren inserted to make some very clumsy points about Australian history. It is an attempt at moral seriousness that fails utterly.

Despite the endless talk of bush poets, we get only a few lines of the stuff, and there seems to be a general lack of knowledge of the genre and the setting of the play. If the work was funnier, or landed some good satirical blows, this wouldn't matter so much, but this overpitched and overdone comedy is often painful to watch. It's a pity, as Fairley and his cast are capable of much, much better work.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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