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Artistic Director of the Sydney Shakespeare Company and Writer In Residence at Convict Footprints, Steven Hopley is an occasional playwright.
His new play A FORTUNATE FEW had a too brief season at the Chippen Street Theatre, only playing for four performances.
The play starts and we see a dishevelled, homeless guy, Mani, sitting on a blanket, centre stage. Thomas Urquhart, a smart looking, bald headed middle aged man dressed in an expensive suit walks by.
Predictably enough, Mani calls out to Thomas asking him if he has any spare cash to give him. This begin a bit of a fiery exchange between them. Thomas gives him some money. Mani is still niggling him. Thomas gets furious, tells him that he should stop playing the victim, and start doing something with his life. The tug of war continues.
Their interaction ends with Thomas deciding to give Mani a chance. He offers him the role of being his personal assistant and he can start tomorrow. He gives him money to buy a decent pair of clothes. He has Mani starting on a salary, that he couldn’t have even dreamed about. Mani can’t quite believe it but he goes for it.
It isn’t the most original or gripping scenarios still it was enough to engage me and I was then carried along by the deftness of the writing, some surprising twists and turns, and good performances from the cast.
Hopley directed the work himself. Victor Kline, a one time barrister and a long time thespian, played the unpredictable, manic property developer Thomas Urquhart.
Chris Miller gave a strong performance as Mani who sees his life transformed, and even finds some romance along the way.
Brendan Layton plays two roles, the main one being a Gary Bryan, a city councillor, who Urquhart tries to win over in regards to one of his proposed developments.
Emilia Stubbs Grigoriou plays Urquhart’s humourless, uptight daughter Laura.
Hopley’s creative team comprised lighting designer John ‘Jack’ Goggin, light and sound operator Jess Law, fight operator Diego Retamales.
The staging was simple with two main areas; Mani’s homeless spot, and Urquhart’s office desk and chair.
A little powder keg of a play, running just fifty minutes, A FORTUNATE FEW played the Chippen Street Theatre, 45 Chippen Street, Chippendale between the 17th and 20th November 2022.
