Gripping domestic drama

Review

Home Land by Gary Henderson, directed by Ryan Burnell, Foxton Little Theatre, Foxton, August 9-24. Reviewed by Richard Mays.

Debut director Ryan Burnell makes the most of a dream cast to deliver a moving production of this topical domestic drama.

At the heart of Home Land isa standout performance by Carl Terry as elderly farmer Jack Taylor. With a backdrop of the 2003 invasion of Iraq after 9/11, Home Land takes place in the kitchen and dining room of Jack’s central Southland farmhouse.

As his children ‘‘invade’’ the place he has called home for most of his life, the widower is making his own last stand.

In his 80s and with failing health, Jack is about to be ushered into a rest home in distant Dunedin by his farming son Graeme, who lives nearby, and his professional, Aucklandbased daughter Denise.

Accompanying Denise on one of her rare forays to the homestead is her easy-going TV producer husband Paul and petulant teen daughter Sophie.

Enter Graeme’s wife Trish and the scene is set for a quietly escalating showdown. It’s a poignant situation many baby boomers will probably experience as their parents age, and as old conflicts resurface.

Attention to detail is the key to authenticity and from the set to the characterisation this has plenty to commend it.

There’s the lovingly recreated two-room set and, imbued with an air of stoic fatalism, Terry fits his role perfectly with his irascible hard-of-hearing character struggling to walk, and with a hint of a hand tremor.

Likewise, the rest of the cast also successfully inhabit the unspoken region that exists between the lines of dialogue.

Although it could benefit from greater variation in pace, Home Land is a great watch.