With thanks and as published by The Victorian Drama League.

Reviewed by June Collins 19 Sep 2025 

Author: Louis Nowra 

Director: Rosalin Shafik-Eid 

Essendon Theatre Co. 

 It’s 1971 and we’re in Melbourne, in a performance space that’s seen better days. Lewis, a young theatre director, has been hired by a local psychiatric hospital to stage a production with some of the patients. Lewis has lofty artistic goals to stage some Brecht, but he also apparently lacks any ability to say “no”, as when one of the patients is adamant they rehearse Mozart’s opera ‘Cosi fan tutti’ instead, Lewis capitulates. Staging a three-hour opera with performers who cannot sing (and may have taken too much or not enough of their medication) is difficult enough, but with another moratorium protest against the Vietnam War approaching, Lewis’s political friends – and girlfriend – are trying to get him to quit this artistic folly altogether.

The set, designed by Director Rosalin Shafik-Eid and Kadey McIntosh, is dilapidated, singed, and perfect – a believable setting that you might find on such hospital grounds. The set painting was immaculate.

Angelo Snell’s lighting design was effective throughout, with Kadey McIntosh’s sound design an excellent accompaniment. The garish costumes at the end of the show were splendidly realised, but it was in earlier scenes where Frances Orlando’s costume design really stood out. One of the best qualities about this production was its strong and consistent tone (not too farcical, not too serious, ie. nothing “one-note”), and setting that tone always begins with the director and the creative team before a cast ever step on stage.

And goodness what a cast. Angelo Snell played Lewis’ friend, Nick, with a delightful and revulsion-inducing level of arrogance and creep. Bethany Simmons was terrific and rather brutal as Lewis’ girlfriend, Lucy. In Nick and Lewis we find a challenge for Lewis greater than the patients he’s trying to wrangle. They don’t believe the art he’s making is valid – especially as a form of protest – and this conflict between the three of them is portrayed wonderfully.

Zac, inmate and pianist, was brilliantly played by Andy Burns. Zac’s arc through the play from near-catatonic to near-manic was hilarious to watch. Donal Taylor was great as Henry. A combination of Chief Bromden from ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ and Arkwright from ‘Open All Hours’, as Henry comes out of his shell the audience was drawn in, in a fine performance. Kerry Davies was wonderful in the role of Ruth, portraying her OCD(?) with great presence and commitment. Yes, there’s the rigid nature of Ruth needing to know and then count each step her character in their production of ‘Cosi fan tutti’ takes, but that rigidity extends also to Ruth’s physicality and expressions – all conveyed well by Kerry.

Speaking of commitment, Alexandra Taylor did stellar work as Cherry, giving a strong performance that was intense, funny, and terrifying pretty much all at the same time. Harley Wilcher was marvellous as the hospital’s social worker, Justin. Justin cares, just enough. Assuming no-one’s trying to burn their makeshift theatre down, he’s happy and the character was played by Harley with a good balance of pragmatism and heart.

Chloe McKean gave a fantastic performance as Julie. Her interactions with Lewis were always engaging, but a quiet moment of Julie by herself was possibly the most engaging. Sitting stage-right by herself for a moment, Julie thinks no-one’s looking at her and for those few seconds we glimpse the burden of her addiction and understand that however her story ends it almost certainly won’t be a happy one. It’s one of many choice examples from many of the cast of using quieter moments to enrich their characters.

Certainly, Geoffrey Masters used every opportunity to enrich his role of Doug, patient and arsonist, with as much “ick” as possible. Doug is somehow both predictable and unpredictable at the same time. He’s going to put a match to something, you just don’t know what or when. Can a performance be repulsive and fabulous at the same time? The answer must be ‘yes’ because this one was.

Is ‘Cosi’ Essendon’s nominated play? I hope so because Nick Cheadle easily gave a VDL Award-winning performance in his turn as Roy. It’s Roy’s love and obsession for ‘Cosi fan tutti’ that Lewis wrestles with at each rehearsal. Where there is resistance there is heat. Where Roy and Lewis share a rehearsal space, there is heat, conflict and hilarity. As big and dramatic as Roy gets, it’s never too much. Beautiful work.

Rounding out the first-class performances was Lochie Dew as Lewis. Lewis contends with a lot. He doesn’t want another sandwich from Cherry, but he also doesn’t know where she’s hidden her knife, so doesn’t say ‘no’. There’s a lot of surrendering Lewis seemingly does early on, but as opening night approaches for him and the cast, what Lewis doesn’t surrender is knowing that this haphazard, calamitous work has value. It’s a lovely performance by Lochie, especially by the end as Lewis addresses the audience directly, narrating everyone’s fates.

Superb stuff by Essendon Theatre Company and a credit to all involved.