Motortown - some reviews (sydney)

If you like your theatre straight up, no icing, then this emotionally potent, low-budget gig is for you. ... Director Ben Packer attracted attention last year with a production of Mercury Fur which, after premiering at Theatreworks in Melbourne, also played a successful season at the Stables. His direction here is taut and wiry. Clearly, Packer’s reputation as an emerging director of real talent is such that he has been able to attract an excellent cast.

They are a get-go bunch, typical of the new generation of practitioners capable of more than waiting for their agents to call. There is a particularly heartfelt rendition by Sophie Kelly as the girlfriend, Marley, who only wants Danny to leave her in peace. And there’s a sensational scene towards the end, partly gifted by the writing, where Ryan Gibson and Catherine Moore, as the yuppie couple, Justin and Helen, try and pick up Danny for a three-some. If Danny thinks he fought in the war for ungrateful unworthies, self-serving weirdos and scungy misfits, he is sure of it now.

The character of Danny is a godsend to the rare actor who can deliver the intense mix it requires of an outer edgy forceful masculinity and inner vulnerability and pain. Everything that is good about this Sydney production hangs off Sean Barker’s fearless and convincing performance, as frightening at times as it is ultimately heartbreaking. Barker’s outward displays of raw anger are judiciously timed, just as the worm of grief eating out his insides is ever palpable across the surface of his skin.

The play is written with astonishing intensity of focus. That characters occasionally slip into speaking directly for the playwright is a small fault, given that what the writer has to say in such moments is so interesting.

In giving this production a major wrap, of course, I am encouraging attendance. Do remember that this is ‘little theatre’: not War and Peace or Apocalypse Now. Yet, despite access to only limited material resources, Motortown is richly imagined and vividly realized by both director and cast.

James Waites - Australian Stage Online

... (T)his stark production remains gripping thanks to the potency of the writing and director Ben Packer's restraint.

Sean Barker radiates hostility and confusion and the climax of his rampage is chillingly realised. Simon Corfield's portrait of Danny's autistic brother strays toward parody but becomes affecting. Sophie Kelly, Michelle St Anne and Yure Covich's savvy portrayals of slack-jawed twentysomethings are well counterpointed by Ryan Gibson and Catherine Moore, playing a pair of middle-class swingers.

Not a light-hearted night out by any means but a grimly rewarding one.

Jason Blake - The Sun Herald

Director Ben Packer (of last year's Mercury Fur fame) has put together a simple, stunning production. It shows, in ways J.G. Ballad would be proud of, the hypocritical and sheltered views of society far removed from the atrocities of war. Yet it never patronises. The cast perform seamlessly - and a special mention must go to Michelle St. Anne as Jade the 14-year-old, for her heart-breaking acting through a particularly distressing scene

The set is sparse, deliberately so, with just two plastic chairs on a wooden floor. These are more than adequate, for the intensity of the play leaves no room for props.

Motortown re-inforces a view that the best stories are simply told, and I would go so far as to say that this is one of the most important plays of recent times.

Rochelle Fernandez - AussieTheatre.com

Motortown however shows (Ben) Packer's search to find simplicity in design, simplicity in direction and simplicity in delivery ...

The beauty of what Packer has done can be summarised as a search for stillness through restraint. There are no electronic sound effects just the sound of a popper used to mark the beginning and end of a scene. Nor is there flash lighting, just a general wash that comes up and down.

Packer resists the temptation to make Danny like Mamet's Edmond but instead keeps a firm hand on the mood so that the audience is swamped by the pure simplicity and almost aggravating stillness. You can feel the audience wanting for there to be a denouement, but Danny's flat line emotions dictate a more powerful feeling over the audience.

Sometimes the effect works, and sometimes it doesn't. But its a journey I want to see more of. A journey that is exciting in an industry constantly trying to outdo each other.

Nicholas Pickard - sydney arts journo blog