Briallen Clarke as Hazel (and several other characters) in Pony. Photo: Brett Boardman,
Billed as an ‘oh, so crass, one-woman crusade’, Eloise Snape’s debut play Pony is also a hilarious (and so on point) depiction of the one-way, life-changing journey into motherhood.
Hazel (Briallen Clarke) is pregnant. She is also delusional, in denial and doing whatever she can to ignore the fact that her world is about to change. Drastically. Isabel Hudson’s set has disco-tile walls and is dominated by a huge, pink pony – it’s Play School meets nightclub, which is more or less the state of Hazel’s mind. We meet her at a Rhyme Time at her local library, where Mrs Twinkles is attempting to engage her young charges and their mind-fogged mothers with infantilised welcomes. Clarke is Mrs Twinkles – she plays all the roles in this conversation about motherhood and womanhood – and, unlike Mrs Twinkles, Clarke has our attention from the get-go, and she never loses it. Her comedic timing and stage presence is wonderful.
Back to Hazel. She’s no angel. She swears like a trooper, is into male strippers, experimental sex and met her husband in trying circumstances (for him) – a visit to the RPA was involved. (He forgave her. Obviously. Eventually.)
She’s not at all sure she’s cut out for motherhood, but what to do? Director Anthea Williams describes Pony as ‘a coming-of-middle-age story’.
Throw into the mix Hazel’s beloved, whisky-tippling nana; her less revered (but nonetheless trying to engage) mother; a regimental, whistle-blowing midwife who doubles as a gymnastics coach; a puppet-murdering toddler; her long-suffering best friend; a Hot Dad; a few exes (Clarke voices 30 characters) and things get complicated. In a good way, at least as far as the audience is concerned.
Clarke’s Hazel recounts her life and sex life before pregnancy and then all the way through to the moment of delivery, via all kinds of advice, ante-natal classes and anxieties about physical and mental health. It’s a sort of Australian version of Fleabag meets The Letdown. And it works.
There’s more here than one woman’s trials. Three generations of women have a voice and Hazel won’t be the first daughter to view her own mother in a different light as she approaches motherhood. Nana, in her twilight years, has sound advice. And whatever happens, life will never be quite the same again.
Highly recommended.
Until 17 June
Tickets: $38-$62
https://griffintheatre.com.au/whats-on/pony/ or (02) 9361 3817
