The Swimming Club

Editorial

When: 30 January - 14 March, 2010
Where: MTC Sumner Theatre
Bookings: MTC, 03 8688 0800 or Ticketmaster, 1300 723 038

A swag of awards and scores of happy punters can attest to the talent of Hannie Rayson. The playwright, known and loved for theatre staple Hotel Sorrento, is returned and her focus is trained on the problems of intimacy and age.

One of the theatre's foremost students of the self, Rayson takes us to midlife by way of a Greek Island.

It is 1983 and a half dozen vital, sexy naïfs spend a Mediterranean summer taking in the sun and each other. Then, we're sped forward to 2009. These same six are older, a little less vital and certainly less naïve.

Bound by mortgages, age and the realisation that a world they once commanded is now the province of their children, the group decides to reunite on the island.

This menopausal Tempest can only play out well with a cast that includes John Waters, a man whose chops were honed in everything from Underbelly to Playschool to Lear. Fellow Underbelly Alum, the redoubtable Caroline Gillmer takes pause from her success in Menopause the Musical to join Angela Punch Macgregor and Igor Sas.

Fleshed out here by veteran director Kate Cherry, The Swimming Club promises to describe the space between us.

Helen Razer, Citysearch