Emma Dalton and Tricia Youlden in Yielding. Photo: Andrea Mudbidri
These two one act plays are linked by their examination of death and the road to dying.
Yielding is first. It’s a two-hander, performed by Tricia Youlden and Emma Dalton, and it is unremittingly bleak, which may have been writer Emma Workman’s intention but it offers little respite to the audience. After an interval comes Paul Roger’s Big Horn with Richard Cotter in the main role. It offers more light and shade, and some comic relief.
In Yielding, Dot (Youlden) has suffered a stroke and is desperate to escape her life. She wants her middle-aged daughter Liz (Dalton) to kill her. Both performances are solid. We can see and hear Dot’s frustration, her inability to communicate clearly and we can see Liz’s reluctance to top her mum and hope for improvements in medical science. It’s not an enviable situation, but the options are never truly canvassed. Instead, under Richard Cotter’s direction, we are shown the indignities and helplessness of an elderly stroke victim, and the pain and exhaustion of the daughter who is trying to cope with the shell of her mother. The emotions and the sadness of each character’s predicament is clearly shown, and there is a lot of exposition, but no clear resolution. Liz’s moral dilemma is not fully explored. I wanted Dot’s pain to end.
In Big Horn, Youlden takes the directing chair and Richard Cotter is Ray Bold, who is most definitely raging against the dying of the light. Ray, whose wife and son are both dead, refuses to concede his is getting old (fair enough) and is adamant he is not leaving his home. This infuriates his daughter-in-law Cate (Mel Day), who thinks moving into sheltered housing will benefit Ray, and amuses his very young social worker Mel (Eloise Martin-Jones), who conspires with Ray to annoy Cate. Into the mix comes a sex worker Sioux (Dalton), proving that there is life in old dog Ray yet, and raising Cate’s irritation levels.
There are poignant moments, and the writer is careful to give us various points of view. Rather like Liz in the first play, Cate – an empathetic character – wishes her parent (in law) to move on so that she can move on. She is doing her best. Ray is most definitely a fighter, and his war service is referenced both in words and in the soundscape by Jacinta Frizelle. He sees Death as the enemy, waiting in the trenches and ready to ambush him. Ray is not about to give up or give in. Cotter makes him likeable and believable. Mel and Ray’s interactions are also endearing and enjoyable. In fact, I would have liked to know more about Mel and her backstory.
As a discussion of ageing and its complexities, of death and dying, Big Horn gives us more to think about. But the lines of combat are established early on and some of the ensuing detail becomes a tad superfluous. Like life, I suppose.
Yielding and Big Horn run until 6 June
Tickets: $20-$35
