…… ‘Stretch’, Jack Hibberd’s play of
1972. This is a 25th Anniversary revival directed by
Greg Carroll with Peter Hosking playing Monk O’Neill, and
it’s playing in the Comedy Club in the front part which used
to be Budinski’s Theatre of Exile and I’m sorry to say
it closes this evening. So in virtually the same spot as its
world premiere, which I lit by the way back in 1972.
It’s good to see this again for the umpteenth time and to
revel in the playwright’s consummate wordplay, none better
than his description of the death of the horse Cromwell, or his
visit to Mount Kosciusko with Les Darcy where he gives his vision
of Australia, and Monk says "Cut it out Les, you cannot
extract sunbeams from a cucumber". Likewise his scene with
Caroline in the country where he’s travelling along the road
and he says "I discern a feather of smoke". He’s a
master of the English language and the Australian vernacular is
Hibberd. His superb mono-drama technique is just wonderful. He
peoples the stage with so many characters. Monk himself is young,
medium, and old. Then there is the wonderful encounter with Mort
Lazarus, and his rapid death.
I also liked the way in this production it reminded me of the
way Hibberd masters time. There is an account for example of a
scene that took place in his past with a character called Merv
and his girlfriend Dorabella. And this particular moment took
place in two previous periods of the past and in two different
locations but they’re accounted as if simultaneous.
It’s a wonderful fusion of the present and two bits of the
past.
This is really accomplished stuff. It’s a deserved
Australian classic in fact, and Peter Hosking, who does this in
white clown face and contemporary suit, in various stages of
disarray it should be said, captures the whole picture very very
well. There are one or two moments, when you’ve seen other
productions, stick in the memory perhaps better with predecessors
like Peter Cummins or Max Gillies, but let me just say this;
Happy Anniversary ‘A Stretch of the Imagination’ -
great old play.