Sarah Aubrey and Amelia Robertson-Cuninghame in The Elements of an Offence.
The Elements of an Offence is a show worth seeing during its run at the Queer Fringe. It has an enjoyable mix of intelligence and interesting characters, good acting and direction and best of all, potential. The text might not be there yet but right from the brittle atmosphere of the opening scene, there is an interesting mystery, two women we want to know more about and socially relevant ideas with which to engage.
The women are police officers and the offence is ostensibly to do with a possible unprovoked service firearm discharge. What it’s really about is … there’s another woman being seen as letting down the various teams. These two investigators are lovers and they will deal in diametrically opposed ways with the real and the alleged of the offence. Their professional situation, policing styles and rank, is nicely put into frame in that first scene where the professional, ‘Ma’am’ and ‘Sergeant’ supplants any ‘Rach’ or ‘Darling’. They are booted and suited and have an obvious ease about how they are perceived which rings very true without being stone butched. Hard to know, though, if their lack of tenderness is related to their job or how they are.
This relationship will come under pressure but there is more to the text by James Gefell than merely a modern workplace romance. The complexity outside the narrative does assert itself late in the play when the limits of justice inside bureaucracy are explored and this section has strong potential as a theatrical treatise. There is also some self-loathing cop bashing there which may not sit comfortably with everyone. However, in its current incarnation there is laugh out loud fun to be had with a cast who bring considerable charm and comic timing to their work.
As Detective Inspector Rachel Marks, Sarah Aubrey has the sit on the desk physicality of a woman in charge. There’s a slightly nerve wracking calm, too, and inanities for every occasion. ‘Settle down Charlie Brown’. But with a perky, unreconstructed, hardnosed copper in there, for sure. Amelia Robertson-Cuninghame’s Christine on the other hand is much more of a closed book. Often shaking her head at Rachel’s insistences, hers is the pragmatism and strength to say no. She is written as a ‘wordsmith’ and there is an underlying intelligence in her looks and sighs. She will often throw herself forward in frustration but when she stands, arms folded and immovable we get the grit and conviction of someone who cares not that she is labelled a Pollyanna by her other half.
There is also some crafty direction here that ups the enjoyment factor. The movement is well calibrated for interesting and characterful visuals but the pacing is what really brings out the black humour. It can rollick along when these pair get bantering but even more interesting things happen when Director Alice Livingstone slows it down. Without divulging beyond the sordid, there’s a scatological few minutes which are hilarious and during which Livingstone has Rachel simply hang in the wtf moments while the audience catches up.
Presented on a simple Fringe stage with no lighting or audio to speak of The Elements of an Offence has a healthy disrespect for lesbian correctness and introduces two characters we might like to see more of. Playing at the New Theatre until 16 September.
3 stars ★★★
The Elements of an Offence
Produced by New Theatre as part of Queer Fringe @ The New
Director: Alice Livingstone
Cast: Sarah Aubrey, Amelia Robertson-Cuninghame
10-16 September 2018
Queer Fringe, New Theatre, Sydney
