Welsh playwright Alan Harris’ play FOR THE GRACE OF YOU GO I is the new play at Bakehouse’s King Cross Theatre.
Jim is employed as a pizza maker by a company under a government scheme to help people with mental health issues to achieve gainful employment.
Sadly, he is slow at his job and his boss Irina tells him that she will have to fire. Before he does get the bullet he starts doing sabotage and starts writing messages expressing his distress with bits of pepperoni.
He loses his job and joins a monthly film club where he meets Mark who is also an outsider. Together they watch a weird 1990 Finnish film I HIRED A CONTRACT KILLER. Jim identifies with the film’s protagonist who hires a contract killer to kill him, because he finds life too painful for him to live any more, and he isn’t able to end his own life by his own hand. This gives Jim some ideas…
Harris’ play is a bit too clever by half for my liking but is given a very strong production by Lucy Clements.
The intimate Bakehouse stage is regaled with film cameras, projection equipment and screens. There was the world of the play, there was the filming of the play in real time, and then there were the scenes from the 1990 film being played out
This setup is something quite familiar for Sydney theatregoers, especially those familiar with productions by Kip Williams, Sydney Theatre Company’s Artistic Director.
The main members of Lucy Clements accomplished creative team were co set designers and co costume designers Monique Langford and Kate Ingram, lighting designer Alice Stafford and sound designer Sam Cheng. Eezu Tan was the Assistant Director and Johnny Yang assistant sound designer.
The performances were outstanding. James Smithers was great as the good natured Jimmy but you could just tell under the surface that he was very vulnerable.
Shan-Ree Tan gave an exceptional performance as Mark. There was an intensity that always felt like it could explode. Such a watchable performance.
Jane Angharad gave a good performance as the well meaning, stressed out and always snappily dressed Irina. I felt that this was the role with the least on offer for the actor.
This was an interesting night at the theatre. There was a deeper journey to the play. This was about the treatment of those less fortunate, with mental health issues and the like, and how in the morass, they can get themselves in all sorts of trouble.
FOR THE GRACE OF YOU GO I is playing the Kings Cross Theatre until Saturday 15 October 2022.
