Image © John McDermottIt can’t be easy for one man to speak for an hour, on a stage mostly bare of props save for a lectern, a handful of letters, a briefcase and a toy penguin. Stuart Devenie makes it feel like a walk in the park.
Devenie plays the part of Joseph Hatch, a fascinating, but obscure player in Tasmanian and New Zealand sub-Antarctic history. We meet Hatch as an elderly man who has lost everything: family, reputation and his beloved business distilling oil from the highly dubious source of steamed penguins. If truth is stranger than fiction, than Hatch’s story is truly bizarre. The entrepreneur conducted travelling road shows around Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s to drum up support for the restoration of his licenses to ‘digest’ penguin oil on Macquarie Island. Permission had been revoked by the Tasmanian government under pressure from such luminaries as explorer Douglas Mawson, writer H.G. Wells, photographer Frank Hurley and banker, Baron Rothschild.
As a venue for many such public meetings for environmental, political and social causes over many decades, the Hobart Town Hall was perfect for this simple, yet sophisticated piece. Utterly compelling acting and the seamless script by Geoff Chapple brought Mr Hatch to life in that grand old room. The neatly pressed suit, the legs slightly stiffened with age, the flamboyant gestures to the slides projected behind the stage vividly conjured up the bullish, belligerent old man.
Hatch’s blinkered self-assurance and drive achieved much for him: Mayor of Invercargill, member of the House of Representatives in New Zealand, and successful businessman. But his overblown self confidence, complete lack of social sensitivity and his cultivation of foes brought about great loss. Despite his many successes, Hatch’s greatest failure may have been his refusal to learn from these experiences.
Little things spoke for much in this production, such as the neatly patched seam on the inside of Hatch’s coat which opened the door for us to enter the tragic tales of a failed family, subservient to Hatch’s business ambitions.
The monologue was full of fabulous conspiracies: between the unions and ornithological societies, among the political 'curs' who managed to smuggle in an income tax and those who made a ‘bonfire around his reputation’ (‘Douggy’ Mawson, Frank Hurley the ‘bare-faced liar’ and Baron Rothschild, the bird and zebra collector). There were shades of today’s fallen Wall Street high-flyers in Hatch's free-market evangelism, yet the long silences and misty gaze of an old man losing himself in reveries revealed his frailty. The backdrop of aged lantern slides, annotated with the perfect copperplate penmanship of a refined and bitter old man of the Empire, locate us firmly within the era and the drama.
This play is light, funny and inclusive. It is sad, but quirky, and leaves the audience a little bewildered about what they just signed up to. I just wished Stuart Devenie had come back for a proper bow so he could receive the true applause he deserved.
Ten Days on the Island presents the Auckland Theatre Company production of
HATCH
Or The Plight Of The Penguins
by Geoff Chapple
Director Colin McColl
HOBART
Hobart Town Hall, 50 Macquarie Street
27–30 March at 6pm
CYGNET
Cygnet Town Hall, 14 Mary Street
31 March at 7pm
SWANSEA
Swansea Town Hall, 17 Franklin Street
2 April at 7pm
LAUNCESTON
Launceston Town Hall, 18–28 St John Street
3 & 4 April at 6pm
ROWELLA
Rowella Hall, Rowella Road
5 April at 4pm
Duration: 1hr 5mins (No interval)
Tickets: $35, Concession $25
Online Bookings: www.tendaysontheisland.com
Stephenie Cahalan is a Hobart-based writer and book editor.
This review is part of arts@work’s Critical Acclaim program, designed to increase critical analysis of the arts.