With thanks and as published by The Victorian Drama League.

Reviewed by Damian Jones,19 Jun 2025

Author: Andrew Bovell

Director: Angelo Snell

Theatre Company: Essendon Theatre Co.

One of the joys of reviewing is the opportunity to see a variety of companies, performers and venues. This was my first visit to Essendon Theatre Company, to see the opening night of ‘Things I Know To Be True’. Written by Andrew Bovell, and set in Adelaide over the space of one year, the play tells the story of the Price family – parents Fran and Bob, and their four adult offspring, each dealing with significant issues in their lives. It is an ensemble piece, and without giving the plot away, each character has an acting challenge, communicating the changes in their life over the course of the play. It is a pretty heavy story interspersed with lighter moments, which is immensely entertaining.

I have a fondness for Australian plays, with the language, characters, and settings familiar to most of us. This play is also relatively new (written in 2016), and hence deals with contemporary issues, that many can easily identify with. Bovell, has structured the play beautifully, and written characters of depth and believability, that are a delight to witness.

Bringing this story to life on the stage is a significant challenge, and one which the Director Angelo Snell and his cast and creatives have met and delivered in style. Essendon’s theatre has production challenges – low ceiling height, wide flat floor auditorium, and restriction on what can be done technically. Working within these parameters, Snell has designed a setting which works effectively, providing an interior kitchen and utility setting, and a backyard setting complete with garden shed and massive tree structure, where most of the full family scenes take place. I particularly like the gum tree structure – so cleverly done, and the continuation of the theme into the internal space. An additional auditorium space was created for the major monologues, which provided for intimate audience delivery. The width of the stage creates some sight line challenges, but most of these were overcome through some clever direction. Tamsin Mackie’s lighting design was effective, supporting the changing use of playing spaces. Christine Nilsson’s contemporary costumes worked well, and met the changing character demands effectively. Rosalin Shafik-Eid’s props added to the setting texture, making us feel right in an Australian home. An inspired choice for mine, was to provide side-stage live music and vocals both prior to the show, and during setting changes. Loretta Quinn’s vocal and keyboard led us into the play, and were complementary to the narrative.

I have often observed how good casting decisions make realisation of a play so much more cohesive and believable, particularly with a demanding ensemble piece. And for mine, Angelo Snell’s choice of actors for each role was really solid. We could believe that this was a family, supportive of each other, but with more natural personality pairings within the family.

As matriarch Fran Price, Paula McDonald delivered a strong characterisation of the mature woman – weary from having to work shifts to support herself and family, supportive but a little frustrated by a now-retired husband who has limited horizons, aware that her children are not always making great choices, but that she will support them no matter what. Paula is a wonderfully experienced actor, gifting us with a nuanced performance and I could easily believe that she was Fran.

Chris Mentor as patriarch Bob Price, plays a character a little more out of touch with his offspring. His background of a lifetime working in a car plant, retrenched, and now focussing on the backyard garden provided a more physical and brash contrast to Fran. This is a difficult character, and Chris gave us a well rounded performance, providing the family ‘anchor’ during the early stages, which developed more nuance and empathy as the narrative progressed to its latter stages.

Youngest daughter Rosie was played by Taylah Shiell, delivering a key monologue setting up her character very early in the play. Taylah lit up the stage with her personality and confident delivery – clearly no opening night jitters here. As the play progressed, her character provided a supporting role to the other family members, and the bond between her and the character of Mark was particularly poignant and beautifully done.

Older sister Pip was played by Emily Parello, who has recently returned to the stage after a 15 year hiatus. Pip is dealing with a contentious family issue, which Emily played with both confidence and awareness of the tension it induced. Again, a tough role, but with a solid interpretation which suited the family dynamic. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more from Emily in the future.

Harley Wilcher as son Mark, delivered a more introvert characterisation early in the play, as the script required, but then delivered a most poignant ‘pin-drop’ moment mid-way through the play. The characterisation was so strong, and so moving, as to evoke an emotional response from a number of audience members. Beautifully done, Harley.

And finally, son Ben, played by Daniel Price, gave us a strong characterisation that led us down one path only to have it challenged by the issue he revealed late in the play, and which partially divided the family. Again a tough role to portray, but Daniel delivered both strength and fragility with great skill and style.

As you can gather by now, I really enjoyed this production, for which a substantial amount of credit must be given to Director Angelo Snell, in only his second directorial role. The characterisations were beautifully balanced, the contrast between highs and lows well modulated, and the overall demands of the story comprehensively met. Clearly much time and effort had been invested in understanding how each scene contributed to the narrative, and the part each character played. And while there were a couple of directorial issues largely resulting from limitations in the facility, the overall result was terrific. The audience was fully engaged, and emotionally moved. I look forward to seeing more work from this talented thespian.

My congratulations to all involved at Essendon Theatre Company on this production. It was a pleasure to attend such an absorbing night in the theatre.