Written by Liam Patrick Harrison

Directed by Samuel Bossman

Review by Eloise Robertson

The Freshwater Five watches like a promising work in progress; combining a fascinating premise with flashes of intelligent writing and deeply innovative moments. It remains, however, plagued by disengaging pacing, confusing multi-rolling, and inconsistencies in the success of the writing.

At the off, Ulysses Wells’ frightening sound-scaping combined with Jack Hathaway’s eerie lighting to produce genuine immersion. These initial moments, with the cast speaking poetry and clanking their chains within the atmosphere of a turbulent coastal night, promised an intense performance. Impressively quickly, however, lighting states were switched to plain white and the sound removed. The audience, so abandoned by the colours and sounds which usually invest them, instead looked to the script and performers to keep them hooked; at this weighty task, they did not fully succeed.

While there was some inconsistency in the performer’s ability, this lack of success was not the burden of the performers. Rather, directorial decisions and peculiarities of the writing pushed every performer to multi-role with little distinction through a confusingly non-linear plot. The inexplicably high demand on Samuel Bossman to play two of the jailed sailors epitomised this; these real men’s lives each received barely a fleshing-out by being merged, rather indistinguishably, onto one performer. Bossman’s attempt to clarify these roles unfortunately led him to appear rather overly-conscious of what he was saying. Laryssa Schoek’s Emily Bolton fell afoul of this too, approaching her role as largely narrative and each word with painstaking clarity.

There were, yet, true moments of success and innovation throughout. Chief amongst these was Leigh Kelly’s performance of Jamie Green; complemented by receiving the bulk of the script’s success, he felt like a whole character and a very real man. Kelly, alongside playwright Liam Patrick Harrision, deserves kudos for providing the emotional weight of the piece when Jamie mourned his wife.

The moral weight of the piece was further complemented by clever metaphors like dice thrown on the scales of justice and all-important boat traffic displayed across the stage with rope. All these touches crescendoed into a moral certainty which was forcibly pumped by the performers into the audience’s veins. Yet, this is not how I like to take my moral certainty; I prefer it well-grounded, with passion, emotional resonance, and a true understanding which this piece failed to provide.

In all, they told a truly fascinating story which is certainly worth public attention. Given a little more time in the workshop, their innovative writing and staging could blossom into a piece which does genuine justice to their clear investment in this case. With some unquestionably strong performances, moments of real resonance, and intelligent staging decisions, the bones are undoubtedly there.

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