Prolific Melbourne playwright Ross Mueller’s play ‘No Man’s Island’, in a Shaman production directed by Travis Green, tells the story of two cell mates.
The lights come on and two men are waking up and talking to each other from their grotty old prison beds. Simon Bossell plays the withdrawn, lethargic Tim and Andrew Bibby is the more robust and eager Rob. We never find out what they’ve done to be holed up in jail. As their dialogue cuts in and out we get to find out more about their personal stories.
The angle that Mueller takes with his prison cell-mates story is to explore issues around masculinity, competitiveness and the difficulty of men under stress to talk about what’s going on for them. There are always power plays going on as when Tim teases and hassles Rob as he shows off his physical strength with his daily round of push-ups.
Bossell and Bibby give strong performances. Eugyeene Teh’s realistic set comprising the two prison bunks, a toilet, a large ‘prison’ wall with barbed wire hanging above it, and Steve Toulmin and Rosie Chase’s edgy score added to the drama.
‘No Man’s Island’, solid rather than solar plexus drama, plays the Old Fitzroy Theatre, corner Cathedral and Dowling streets, until the 27th June.
