Poor Boy

Seven years ago on the night that ‘Jem Glass’, (Jed Rosenberg/ Nicholas Bakopoulos-Cooke), was born something happened; an event that would link two families through time, ‘Danny Prior’ (Mathew Newton), died. He was run down as he crossed a pedestrian crossing and left to die. His mother, (Sarah Peirse) and his wife, (Abi Tucker), have never really moved on from that night.

Jem Glass is about to celebrate his seventh birthday, the cake is made the candles are lit but Jem passes out before the family can celebrate. When he comes to he’s not who he once was. Jem arrives at the Prior family home claiming to be their long dead son, Danny. He knows all there is to know about his ‘new’ family and nothing about his ‘old’.

One family has to let go while the other has to embrace someone they thought they had lost forever.

What happens when one soul needs to complete with the family left behind? What is a soul? These are just two of the really big questions that ‘Poor Boy’ attempts to answer. Pretty heady stuff you would imagine, questions that some of the great minds have been struggling with for centuries.

Strong performances across the board from the cast with the standouts being Linda Cropper as ‘Viv Glass’ and Sarah Peirse as ‘Ruth Prior’.

It’s the staging that grabs your attention, on a multi level set designed by Iain Aitken the players of this family drama try to come to terms with reincarnation and excise the demons of deeds past.

To use an old fashioned term, this is a lavish production. It’s theatrical, expertly staged and what a luxury to have the band on stage, on hydraulics, and what a cracking band it is, directed by Ian McDonald.

But here’s the rub; does the ‘work’ stand up as well as the staging? There are some really great moments in this production but there are some truly cringe worthy bits as well – the rebirth of the Flame tree made me groan, the affectation of the zebra head, as much as I loved the head, in the end, how much did it really move the story forward?

The author, Matt Cameron, describes ‘Poor Boy’ as a play with music by Tim Finn, (pictured). Sure new songs have been written for the production but other songs most noticeably, ‘I Hope I Never’, have been worked into the script, not always successfully.

The show doesn’t quite live up to the staging.

Having said all of that at the end of the performance the audience was very vocal and energetic in its approval.

It’s at times like that, when I’m seeing a play or a piece of theatre and everyone around me is so entranced and taken up by the whole experience that I start to wonder, “Why am I not as moved or involved as the others. What is it about me that stops me from experiencing the same amount of joy that everyone else seems to be.” I sat in the theatre and listened to the cheers and the applause for the show and thought, “Have we all just seen the same piece? Sure it was good but it wasn’t great.” Immediately I began to doubt my own critical abilities.

I have prepared myself to be shot down in flames by the rest of the audience.

‘Poor Boy’ opened July 9, at the Sydney Theatre and runs until August 1.