Jump for Jordan – Griffin Theatre Co

Overview

If we're frank about it, so many plays promise the world and deliver a small domestic drama. Griffin Theatre's Jump for Jordan promises a small domestic drama but contains the world.

Written by Donna Abela, Jump for Jordan was the winner of last year's Griffin Award for the best unproduced script. You can imagine that the play, with its lyrical tumble of words, would have sung on the page, and it's now been realised with a gargantuan level of gusto by director Iain Sinclair and a hilarious cast of mostly Arab Australian women. It takes place on a household set invaded by a sand dune, an evocative image created by designer Pip Runciman.

Sophie (Alice Ansara) is a student of archaeology — a sweet conceit in a play where she's digging under layers of her own family history and identity. She's been on volatile terms with her mother, first-generation Jordanian migrant Mara (Doris Younane), since leaving home to live with her girlfriend, Sam (Anna Houston), and things are about to get tenser yet.

Her younger sister, Loren (Sheridan Harbridge), has attained the major success of getting engaged to a man, and her mysterious Aunt Azza (Camilla Ah Kin), is on her way over from Jordan for the wedding. Sophie sees her mother amp up the traditionalism in front of her visitor ("it's like SBS in there"), and she agrees to join the charade. But pretending to be someone she's not is putting strain on Sophie's relationships and sending her into ruminations with her gentle, dear, departed father, Sahir (Sal Sharah).

From this set-up, it probably sounds like the play is about the liberalism of the new country versus the conservatism of the old — a tired topic at the best of times. That turns out not to be the case. It's really about the conservatism of the diaspora, and how the psychology and sociology of the migrant experience can make so many people sadly, bitterly, detrimentally attached to a make-believe version of their homeland.

I really loved Jump for Jordan. It's bold, ambitious, successful in its gambits, full of truths and the most high-energy beast on a Sydney stage. Abela has constructed a delicately layered piece where time and place run into each other like shifting sands, and it's been hardily honed at Griffin. The cast are all wonderful; Harbridge stands out for her ability to make anything funny, while the dynamic Ah Kin is perfect as Azza, whose elegance, openness and wisdom are so vital as the play progresses.

One word of advice: Don't sit in the front row. This show is actually so high energy that it's almost like an assault from here. As with all hectic lives, Sophie's is best observed from a couple of steps back.

Image by Brett Boardman.