Extending our horizons

Grand Horizons 
Reviewed by Angela Yeoman

 

Grand Horizons, written by American playwright Bess Wohl and adapted for a New Zealand audience, opened at Studio 73 on 31 October to a full house, and ran for 10 days with equally packed audiences. Grand Horizons explores the expectations of people of all ages (with particular appeal to older audiences) regarding intimacy, commitment, and fulfilment. 

The setting for the play was cleverly done, showcasing the flexibility of the space at Studio 73, with its collapsible tiered seating that can be moved around the room, and the potential to have the ‘stage’ set up or broken down to suit the use of the room. 

Melinda Francis directed and produced Grand Horizons for Greytown Little Theatre (GLT) and put together the perfect cast to tease out the themes of the play. 

 

Barbara Barr and Jonty Austin played the protagonists Nancy and Bill who had just celebrated 50 years of marriage and moved into a retirement village called Grand Horizons. The play opened with the couple working around each other to serve up dinner in their villa, each with their roles. Recognisable to many, the laughter began. But then Nancy dropped a bombshell; she wanted a divorce. 

 

Bill and Nancy’s adult sons instantly began their respective campaigns to sort their parents out, while concurrently dealing with their own issues. 

 

Older son Ben, played by Josh Cameron, struggled to understand the needs of his therapist wife Jess, who was heavily pregnant. Jess was played by Lisa McLeod (a music teacher at Kuranui College by day) and this was her masterful debut in an acting role. The interactions between Ben and Jess were perfectly pitched – hormones flying, needs changing, fear of the demands of parenthood – while Jess tried to use her therapist skills to help Nancy and Bill. Ben alternatively blamed his father and then his mother as their secrets emerged, while simultaneously supporting their every wish.

 

Younger son Brian, played by GLT stalwart Egan Tearle, disappeared to the pub when his parents became too much for him, and returned with Tommy (Miles Eckford) who had only one thing on his mind. Egan has been described as a versatile actor and, in Grand Horizons, he sensitively captured Brian’s insecurities and inability to form intimate relationships.

 

But back to Nancy and Bill. 

 

Nancy’s admission to her younger son about an opportunity missed with another man and their subsequent sexual liaisons, brought the house down, but also hit home. The exploration of an ageing woman’s sexual and sensual desires couldn’t have been more finely honed. 

 

It then became apparent that Bill had ‘another woman’. Carla, played by Loren Davey (another very good find for GLT) came into Bill’s life when they each joined the stand-up comedy class at the retirement village. After a lifetime of devoting herself to her job as a dentist’s receptionist, while eschewing relationships, Carla was ready to give Bill a go despite his risqué (and hilarious) nun jokes. They even indulged in sexting, much to son Ben’s disgust. 

 

Throughout the ‘reveals’, Bill continued to pack up his treasured possessions with the intention of moving out – his toaster, the TV, his favourite chair – but an incident while driving the removal truck changed everything.

 

The curtain came down on Nancy and Bill finally talking to each other about what was important to each of them, and the things they still wanted to do before they got any older. They even held hands “softly,” which was how Nancy liked it.  

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The audience came away, in the words of one woman, “thinking about their own lives,” and what remained to be talked about and achieved, before it was too late. Drama can be confronting and require audiences to investigate their emotional reactions, and Grand Horizons is no exception.  

Director Melinda Francis is even an example of some of the themes investigated in Grand Horizons. Australian-born and now aged 65, Melinda has spent the last year working and travelling in New Zealand, with three plays directed for GLT during this period. About 30 years ago, she worked as a drama tutor in Carterton, so this year has closed off some things for the director, putting them to rest. She says she decided to have this sojourn before she got too old. 

Now returning to Australia, Melinda can be assured she has made a difference to Wairarapa’s world of performing arts and has encouraged GLT actors to move outside their comfort zones and look to new horizons. We might all need a bit of that.