Review: The Raft takes audience on emotional ride

A scene from Napier Repertory Players' latest production The Raft. Photo / Ken Morrison.

What:

The Raft

Where:

Little Theatre, McGrath St, Napier

When:

June 8 to June 18, 7.30pm. Tickets at iTicket.co.nz

Reviewed by:

Keith Russell

Napier Repertory Players' latest production, The Raft, is an intense and emotional story by award-winning New Zealand playwright Carl Nixon.

Directed by Cefyn Gauden and set over a stormy weekend in a West Coast bach, four family members are placed in a bubble and forced to confront issues that threaten to tear them apart while their relationships and secrets are bought to life.

Glenn Cook, as Mark, is consumed with grief over the drowning of his son and reacts with anger to both his wife and father. The audience will show empathy towards him but that is soon put to the test by his frequent cruelty to those who love him.

Mark's wife Tonia, played by Natalie Sandbrook, tries to deal with her husband's grief and anger, watching as her marriage falls apart. Sandbrook is confident, and above all else believable, in her role. Tonia's patience wears thin but she shows courage as she makes a final attempt to save her marriage.

Mark's mother Shirley, played by Adrienne Hurley, tries to hold her family together and deal with her husband's disability. Hurley's stage presence and facial expressions all contribute to the believable role of matriarch to her family.

Playing Mark's father, Jack, Rob Dallas has to portray a man physically disabled by a stroke while trying to understand his son's anger and blame. Dallas gives a wonderful portrayal of speech impediments while at the same time maintaining clear diction. Jack's interaction with his son is as disturbing as it is engrossing - by the end of the second act I had warmed to the character and was pleased he was able to put his own demons to rest.

All actors gave standout performances and showed great timing. Gauden is no stranger to this kind of drama - his direction is tight and the moments of warmth nicely contrast with the seriousness of the themes.

Gauden's set includes a shabby, worn-out bach, while the lighting by Pete Hurley plunges us underwater, where childhood fears once existed. Sound by Jack Hulls introduces us to the supernatural - never has rainfall sounded more claustrophobic.

The title is a metaphor for not having any control and being pushed around by life's currents. What we see as one family's intense weekend will take you on an emotionally draining trip.