Return to Earth – Arthur and Griffin Independent

Overview

It's a fine line you walk writing magic realist plays. You want to stay in the blazing fires of poignancy, but one stumble away lies the empty desert of twee. Playwright Lally Katz has quite consistently been scorching, adding grunt to whimsy for some dozen years and 20 works. Best known in Sydney for the moving play she purpose-built for Robyn Nevin, Neighbourhood Watch, as well as this year's energetic un-commission Stories I Want to Tell You in Person, her work is surreally plotted yet emotionally resonant — and always, always original.

There was a chance her recent play, Return to Earth wouldn't make the grade, however, after its initial Melbourne Theatre Company outing became one of the most panned plays of last year. And that's where things get interesting. Because that show was derided for its hollow cuteness, but there's no trace of it in this Sydney production, directed by Paige Rattray with local indie company Arthur. Their Return to Earth is an odd but balanced little world beautifully riven with melancholy.

It follows what happens when the missing Alice (The Sapphires' Shari Sebbens) returns to her family in small-town Tathra. Her lost years are a mystery no one will directly address, and the new Alice acts completely disconnected from reality and social convention — she has to relearn how to chew, treat houseguests, everything. She even, it turns out, has her own name wrong.

In these difficult circumstances, some embrace her with enthusiasm, while others are slower to accept. Her mother (Wendy Strehlow) and father (Laurence Coy) are enthusiastic to the point of alienating, and the effect is only heightened by their American accents. Her brother, Tom (Ben Barber), and former best friend, Jeanie (Catherine Terracini), have rather less patience with the guileless prodigal daughter, while the new friendship offered by Theo (Yure Covich) is a welcoming blank slate. However, it's Ben's seven-year-old daughter, Catta (Scarlett Waters), to whom Alice is perhaps most strongly tied.

The implication, from the title on down, is that Alice has been in outer space. More likely is the metaphor that Alice is a traveller with irrepressibly itchy feet that cannot be soothed in sleepy Tathra. As strong as her inability to feel bound to her kin is her need for adventure. It causes ache on all sides. This is not unlike the story of every Doctor Who companion, but given a far deeper reading.

A lot rests with Sebbens' performance as Alice, and she's excellent. Wide-eyed but not overly childish, Sebbens makes it easy for us to empathise with and care about what could easily be an ethereal character. She has a great supporting cast around her, and special mention must go to young Waters, who comes off as the coolest kid around. This is a team that can make barnacles growing on backs and sing-alongs to 'Eternal Flame' seem if not natural, then at least not confected.

The piece is served well by Tom Hogan's subtle, echoing sound design, which wraps innocent moments in a gauze of darkness. There's an indecisiveness to the set design — the first half of the play is spent filling the blank stage with a clutter of bright objects, which are then cleared and replaced with a solid, realistic dining table for the second half — but it's also not intrusive. The ultimate reward is that, for something abstract, Return to Earth just feels so real.