Eerie sense of foreboding – Port City Signature

IT’S great that the Hope Theatre’s doors are open again. I’ve seen some terrific shows here, although Port City Signature isn’t up there with the best, slightly hindered by Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller’s unsubtle script and characterisation.

The play’s initial premise is intriguing. A lone woman (Meg Clarke) ends up in the station bar of a strange town. She’s waiting for the next train out of there.

She is propositioned by a pub regular (Paddy Echlin), claiming to be the landlord. He offers her a gun and a bag full of money to kill the local sheriff (David Carter) before she catches her train.

The barmaid (Katherine Lea), who doubles as a sex worker, rather inexplicably offers to show the newcomer a good time. She doesn’t take much convincing and agrees, quite readily, to both proposals.

Brimmer-Beller is clearly riffing on some of the tropes and characters one would expect to see in a noir film, or western, but Port City Signature is all surface and no depth.

Echlin gives a strong performance as the publican with a persuasive manner, although strutting around with a gun in the back of his waistband immediately dispels any tension. Other members of the cast are perfectly competent but the characters lack credible motivations to truly convince.

Co-directors Brimmer-Beller and Phoebe Rowell John’s well-paced production is entertaining enough (if a little gruesome).

Running at just 70-minutes, the company succeed in creating an eerie sense of foreboding, and deliver a few surprise twists along the way.

Until October 14
thehopetheatre.com/