Written by Charlie Falkner. Belvoir 25a. 15-26 Nov, 2023.
Darwin’s Reptilia, closing out 2023’s Belvoir 25a season, is bonkers. Whether you think it’s “good bonkers” or “bad bonkers” is going to be entirely up to you, but at $25 a ticket it’s hardly a huge investment. For me, The Master & Margarita upstairs is peak “good bonkers”, but despite the heat Darwin’s Reptilia comes across under-cooked.
We start in New York at a PR party for Renata (Ainslie McGlynn) who’s written a self-help book of dubious quality. Her partner, Declan (Danny Ball) is distracted by the awful industry people around them when Renata receives a shocking message. Her estranged birth mother has died. Renata decides to fly to Darwin, with Declan and their baby, to attend the funeral and meet her half-sister, Flick (Zoe Jensen). When rogue crocodile’s force everyone to stay in their crappy hotel for days on end, tensions and temperatures start to rise.
Designer Ruth Arnold has done excellent work on a tight budget, the “pool” was a nice highlight that had me fascinated and also craving lime jelly on the way home. Lighting by Saint Clair and sound design by Hewett Cook do a lot of heavy lifting to sell the sharp changes of scene and tone.
The performances are generally very good. Some are pitched at “watch me being funny” exaggeration, others trying to stay grounded. Mathew Lee gives nuance to the awkward fanboy John who follows Renata to Australia in search of some direction. Danny Ball plays Declan’s big swings with gusto, one of the few roles that has material an actor can really sink their teeth into.
A major problem is that reality is too often sacrificed at the altar of “quirky” with the characters lacking any internal consistency or genuine human behaviour. Renata’s descent into madness is given no grounding in the script, it merely happens. Declan spends the opening scene completely self-absorbed, but the rest of the play being a responsible(ish) parent. He also has a third-act “revelation” that doesn’t actually mean anything. Flick is narcoleptic (why?) with a disturbing nocturnal tendency (no spoilers – but why? And also, wha-huh?). Hotel Manager Bobbi (Leilani Loau) receives earth-shattering news in one scene, which is hand-waved off in the next.
Taken in isolation, much of this works. Most of the performances are strong and individual scenes are just fine. But when everything is put together it’s clear the puzzle pieces don’t fit, no matter how hard you push them into place. Once the script has cycled all five leads through each possible pairing, it has nowhere else to go. What do these characters actually want? What is the point of putting these characters in this situation? What do they reveal about each other? The narrative gets lost in the shuffle as Renata (ostensibly the main character) fades from the action and lacks an emotional climax. The ending is almost too absurd, and unearned, to mention. I can see the glimmer of interesting thoughts here, but the unfocused storytelling gets in their way.
Darwin’s Reptilia may work for you. The comedy and drama were too uneven for my tastes and the more I looked, the more issues I had with the script. But there was definitely laughter in the room and other reviewers have been warmer to it than I am. So I’d say, if you’re interested, grab a ticket and see for yourself. At $25 a seat, you’ll probably spend more on a pre-show meal anyway.
Cultural Binge 
Leave a comment