Red Leap's passionate engagement with Janet Frame's novel Owls Do Cry honours the diverse experience of readers as they encounter a haunting vision of small-town New Zealand, seen through the eyes of outcasts and misfits.
Hannah Lynch's dancing is sensuously energetic and she brings a refreshingly down-to-earth quality to her jazz infused rendition of the book's opening poem.
Arlo Gibson establishes an amusing connection with the audience as an earnest schoolmaster rising to apoplectic fury about the book's unseemly passions and incorrect punctuation.
Margaret Mary Hollins movingly conveys the frustration of a Mother tormented by her inability to give enough to her children and the design team conjures up a stunning display of lazar light and video projection to re-create the horror of electric shock therapy.
Eden Mulholland's musical score precisely charts the ever-shifting emotions of the work and director Malia Johnston skilfully weaves the disparate elements into a cohesive whole.
Red Leap has crafted a fitting tribute to the astonishing power of Janet Frame's writing.
What: Owls Do Cry
Where & When: Q Theatre, Rangatira to Saturday, November 2.
Reviewer: Paul Simei-Barton