Things I Know To Be True

It’s been a while since we’ve been out to the theatre, largely due to a dearth of shows that look like anything we want to see. Things I Know To Be True is an Australian play, first shown at the State Theatre Company in Adelaide, and now a co-production between the Court Theatre in Christchurch, and Circa Theatre in Wellington. 

With an early 6:30pm start, I checked out our usual haunts for a pre-show dinner. Capitol was fully booked at that hour, and Field & Green was doing a special event, so was unavailable. No worries, we’ll head to Hot Sauce at the QT Hotel instead. We duly showed up, and ordered what turned out to substantial courses of bibim-bap and tuna salad. I’d had a burger earlier in the day, so I didn’t want pudding, but Nicola fancied the banana, Kahlua and peanut butter gelato. We’ve got half an hour until the show starts, so we’ll be fine. “I’ll check to see if we have that” said our waiter…”I’ll be right back”. “Right back” turned out to be 10 minutes. There was only one other table in the whole place. Having placed the order…nothing. More nothing. How hard is this to make? After another 10 minutes we abandoned the idea, and went to pay…just at that moment it appears from the kitchen, but there’s no time to eat it now. The to-ing and fro-ing over removing it from the bill eats further into our time. Fortunately the theatre is just across the road, and we made it with minutes to spare.

We took our seats and the lights went down. The play centres on the Price family in suburban Western Australia, and the four grown-up children take centre stage for each act of the play. In the first, the youngest, Rosie, has just returned from an OE in Europe, surprising her parents by turning up unexpectedly. Each act is centred on a season, marked by the changing of the roses in the garden. As the children’s lives and decisions take place, these impact on the parents and the way that they deal with the crises in their children’s lives show up their morality and attitudes to modern life. The mother, Fran, has always been the voice of the family, giving advice whether wanted or not, and sardonically commenting on the foibles of her offspring. It is presented as a metaphor for modern Australia and the way that the old ways of doing things aren’t now being followed by the younger(-ish) generation.

The ending was foreshadowed at the beginning of the play, but still comes as a bit of a surprise. Some of the choices made by the children are revisited as a result, whilst others are left unresolved. A bit like life, really. Definitely worth watching.