New writing is alive and well in Townsville, and TheatreiNQ has once more delivered with a production that has local roots but also universal appeal.
Artistic director Terri Brabon commissions new work (last year’s Watersong was a stellar example) but her own writing largely goes under the radar in the face of her more visible work as a director.
In this case, she has tackled possibly the hardest of genres – comedy. But the result is The Assignment – and it is pure delight.
Brabon calls this play “a love letter to my childhood, to my family, my high school, my friends and teachers and to my hometown”, and that is precisely what it is. There is probably no more powerful source of inspiration than one’s own memory and this is why this particular production works so well.
Brabon has created a collection of eminently recognisable characters, resisting sparkling one-liners to gain a laugh, but instead concentrating on the situation playing itself out.
So, take your mind back to the late 1980s when the Berlin Wall was about crumble, Soviet Russia was no more and Germany became unified again. But for life in a regional North Queensland town these world events meant little. The local teenagers were more concerned that, unlike post-Soviet Moscow, their local town was not getting a Macca’s!
Next to fashion, there is arguably nothing more evocative of time and place than music. A song from our past will instantly transport us back to a particular time and place in our own nostalgic history and there is plenty of evocative 80s music to give the play a sense of time and place – think, for instance, KC and the Sunshine Band’s ‘Give It Up’.
And what is The Assignment about? A Year 11 school assignment on The Great Gatsby has been set, but two 16-year-old girls have submitted identical copies of the same assignment. Who copied whose work? What ensues is a school scandal with misunderstandings, break-ups and make-ups, complicated by small-town attitudes.
Heading this talented ensemble are two young actors who achieved considerable dramatic heights as disturbed teenagers in TheatreiNQ’s Punk Rock (2024): Emma Smith as Brabon’s alter ego, Jamie, a 16-year-old obsessed with dance, Take 40 Australia and Young Talent Time. Displaying a stage nous and comic timing way beyond her years, Smith inhabits the teenager with infectious energy. Hunter Sams has a great stage rapport with Smith. His performance is full of lightness and joie de vivre, as the nerdy guy who has a student job in a local video shop. His sense of fun is most evident in the two ensemble finale dances.
Also putting in solid performances are Jamie’s two friends, Michelle (Faith Taylor) and Kimberly (Aiva Tyrie). They are fairweather mates whose loyalty is tested in the ensuing scandal.
Ava Saldana Lopez plays the manipulative Jennifer who upsets the applecart of school friendships in her quest to cover up her own actions. An interesting performance.
TheatreiNQ’s Clubhouse Theatre has received a layout reworking for this production, with the audience seated on two sides and the action taking place in the centre, with a bedroom set on the one side. Brendan O’Connor’s set design (complete with ghastly wallpaper) is a perfect throwback to the late 80s, complemented by Daniel Lobley’s lighting design and Kathleen Brabon’s recreation of the era’s fashion faux pas.
Read: Performance review: The Act, RISING, Chunky Move Studios
The Assignment is not just about the laughter – it’s about what you can take away from it too.
The Assignment by Terri Brabon
A TheatreiNQ Production
Clubhouse Theatre, Townsville
Director: Terri Brabon
Stage Manager: Sasha Lea-Rowell
Lighting Design/Operator: Daniel Lobley
Sound Design/Operator: Terri Brabon
Crew: Fionn Baker-Goodson
Set Design: Brendan O’Connor
Set Construction: Brendan O’Connor, Joe Watkins
Costumes: Kathleen Brabon, Terri Brabon
Production Assistants: The Bridge Project
Program Design: Emma Smith
Event Manager: Anne-Marie Smith
Photographer: Chrissy Maguire
Cast: Emma Smith, Ava Saldana Lopez, Faith Taylor, Aiva Tyrie, Hunter Sams, Tighe Tucker, Thomas Burt, Tahnee Smalley, Owen Rogan, Grace Hardy, Kayley Gaw, Jericho Edmondson, Ally Armitage-Cosgrove
Tickets: $30-$40
The Assignment will be performed until 21 June 2025.
