Play well balanced by lead performances
JUSTIN Eade’s play, Home Invasion, which is being presented by the Taieri Dramatic Society, is an intriguing play about hopelessness and hope. For once, there’s more of the latter than the former.
Eade is a prolific author, writing plays for stage and screen, as well as stories for adults and children.
In Home Invasion, a young man in his late teens called Taylor makes the mistake of trying to steal from the home of Peter Methune, a former SAS officer. He’s caught, and finds himself tied up and attempting to argue his way out of the difficult situation.
Methune, to the young man’s amazement, sees potential in him. He takes a risk, and offers the teenager a job helping to renovate his house.
The result is a process of learning for both of them: Taylor gains life skills and practical knowhow, and Methune finds himself sometimes in the position of student rather than mentor.
Matt Brennan as Methune and Zac Henry as Taylor make a great duo. They have good rapport and work well balancing the views of a steady older man and an edgy, hopeless teenager. The play is wellgrounded in the performances of these two actors.
Their dialogue shifts and turns between strong drama and high comedy.
The role of Methune’s estranged wife, played by Phyll Esplin, seems slightly underwritten. The character appears to be too angry to be able to move easily into warmth in the later stages, and we don’t quite connect with her.
Emerald Ottley, as Taylor’s girlfriend, Miri, has some lovely moments. Miri has brains, but feels she’s stuck in the ‘‘street’’, the place the two young people blame for all their troubles.
This production is well directed by David Thomson.