Queensland Theatre’s latest offering is positively funereal

It’s funny, moving and very real but the big problem with this new Queensland play is it comes to a natural end... then keeps going. READ THE REVIEW

A scene from Return to Dirt.

Death ...what a hoot, right? I mean just thinking about it makes you laugh. Or not. It’s a serious subject... isn’t it?

Well yes and no. Brisbane playwright Steve Pirie’s play Return to the Dirt, which won him the Premier’s Drama Award, is set in a funeral parlour in Toowoomba because he once worked in one. Was that a cynical ploy to get material for a play? We think it was just actually that he needed the money because he was getting married and that’s the situation young Steve (Mitchell Bourke) finds himself in this latest from Queensland Theatre.

A scene from Return to the Dirt.

This is a very autobiographical work and to help us through it Pirie himself appears as a kind of undertaker narrator called The Playwright who takes us through this poignant and at times hilarious play which had its world premiere in the Bille Brown Theatre Thursday night.

After 15 minutes of his play I thought to myself ... finally, a play I am going to enjoy all the way through and that was nearly the case.

The problem is that like most things Queensland Theatre does it went on for too long. A play should leave you wanting more not less.

Playwright Steve Pirie holds our hands as he takes us on a journey through life and death in Queensland Theatre’s Return to the Dirt

There just isn’t enough rigour in getting these plays from the page to the stage and judicious editing is badly needed and in this instance it would make a great play brilliant and save it from a bit of self indulgence.

The problem was that the thing ended and then kept going. But though the finale may be overdone the bulk of this play is terrific.

Pirie is a fine writer and his subject matter allows him to explore some very big questions. The answers are probably what you’d expect ... that in the end love is all you need. Love and memories.

Queensland Theatre’s Return to the Dirt.

Mitchell Bourke is very good as Steve and Sophie Cox is his fiance while Jeanette Cronin plays Deb his work colleague, a potty-mouthed and plain-talking woman who has some killer lines. She kind of steals the show.

When he asks her if she believes in God she says ... “No. I believe in the Rabbitohs.” Priceless.

Greg (Chris Baz) looks over the credentials of young aspiring undertaker Steve (Mitchell Bourke) in Return to the Dirt

Other roles are filled by Chris Baz, Miyuki Lotz and Aara Afraz and Cleo Davis often playing multiple parts.

Renee Mudler’s set is spare and clever and the form of the play with the narration interspersing the episodic scenes is very effective and Lee Lewis’s deft direction helps make it compelling, for the most part. The first half was actually seamless.

It was a funny week for me to be seeing it because the day before I had been to a funeral, the first I had been to for many years, so that was still a bit raw and I was filled with sadness at times during this play. Pirie doesn’t shy away from sadness and particularly his experiences of seeing children come through the funeral business where he worked.

And yes it was in Toowoomba and yes he really did work there.

A scene from Return to the Dirt.

It’s a terrific play that badly needs a bit of cutting. As Kenny Rogers once said ... you’ve got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them” and they could have folded them a lot earlier than they did.

As for death well we’re all going to face it but my attitude is pretty much the same as Woody Allen’s.

“I’m not afraid of death. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

Return to the Dirt is on at the Bille Brown Theatre until November 6

queenslandtheatre.com.au

Queensland Theatre’s Return to the Dirt.