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| Cast | |
| Treat | Toby Masson |
| Phillip | Sam Oatley |
| Harold | Tony Donnelly |
| Crew | |
| Stage Manager | Jenny Devonshire |
| Assistant Stage Manager | Angela Juett |
| Set Construction & Decorating | Mick Wright, Steve Grubb, Paul Lay, Colin Rayment |
| Properties | Maureen Hardwen, Tracey Lay, Shirley Andrews |
| Lighting | Colin Rayment |
| Sound | John Buckle |
Review
Powerful play worth the wait
Director Roz Betts waited for three years before being able to bring the hard-hitting drama Orphans to the stage. Clearly the delay did nothing to diminish her enthusiasm or insight into the play, as the production on stage this week at the Edward Alderton Theatre is a powerful triumph.
The three-handed drama is set in a rundown Philadelphia apartment, home to Treat and Phillip. Since the loss of their parents (mother deceased, father long since absent), they have developed a close, self-supporting relationship. Philip is a gentle, slow-witted agoraphobic; Treat has a violent temper and keeps the household going on the proceeds of street robberies. The fragility of their relationship is exposed when Treat kidnaps Harold, a wealthy businessman, and plans a ransom demand. Harold breaks free from his bonds and shows the young men how he can offer them a better future. They are the 'Dead End Kids' he has dreamed of helping with money and love, while in turn they find an unimagined way of broadening their emotional and physical horizons. But what seems like a new dawn for them turns to bitter tragedy.
Lyle Kessler's writing, rather like Harold Pinter, deftly depicts the contrast between physical and psychological dominance and the way in which encounters with strangers can develop extraordinarily intimate and revealing relationships.
This production is a sweeping, gut-wrenching affair with beautifully tailored direction that brings out all the raw human emotion at the heart of the play. Roz Betts is blessed with a first rate cast to achieve this, with Sam Oatley quite spellbinding as the innocent Phillip and Toby Masson radiating danger as the brittle, violent Treat. Treat's ultimate collapse is an immensely moving piece of theatre. Tony Donnelly completes the trio in one of his best performances yet as the enigmatic Harold, a seemingly gentle, caring man whose lifestyle is gradually revealed as sinister and dangerous.
Darryl McCarthy
Kentish Times | 9 February 2001
