“the cast is on top of the material and works together well.“
Veronica Hannon
3.5 Stars
Belvoir
Until 8 March 2023
Blessed Union is about a breakup. Ruth and Judith have been together for decades. The couple is comfortable, living in Sydney’s inner west. They are pioneers who fought the good fight for acceptance. They believe they can rise above the tit for tat and divorce with dignity. But despite all the goodwill in the world, their separation will prove as painful as any other.
Playwright Maeve Marsden is also a performer, producer, and director. She has been around for a while. I have seen a bunch of her shows. My favourite, Mothers Ruin: A Cabaret About Gin, in which she co-starred and co-wrote with like-minded artists, was a hoot, and it toured extensively. Marsden is a terrific comic performer; unsurprisingly, her first play is a tragicomedy.
Blessed Union feels deeply personal. It is a very specific world she shares with us. She knows it well as the child of same-sex parents and offers a vital, at times, nicely irreverent take on it. If it raised a wry smile rather than a full belly laugh from me, plenty of other punters were chuckling throughout.
Ruth (Danielle Cormack) is the driven union organiser, and Judith (Maude Davey) is the primary school teacher who enjoys her job. They are no longer in love when we first meet them and are announcing their decision to part ways at an Easter celebration with family. Their kids, Delilah (Emma Diaz) and Asher (Jasper Lee-Lindsay) seem to take it in their stride, probably because they are used to these kinds of briefings. The women talk at home the same as they do at work. While I became weary of trying to find the content in the layers of euphemism with dollops of jargon, at least when they stuck a flowchart to their open-plan kitchen wall, I knew it could only mean this civil “exit strategy” was going to hell in a handbasket. Whether you enjoy the ride will depend on how invested you are in this family before the first scene change.
It is a dense script by Marsden, and Hannah Goodwin‘s direction offers much-needed levity. The story unravels in two acts in the same setting. The modern bourgeois dwelling is replicated with well-thought-out details by designer Isabel Hudson. The lighting is by Amelia Lever-Davidson, and the soundscape is by Alyx Dennison.
I wondered if Marsden was only showing the aspects of the characters she finds interesting, leaving the actors to flesh out the rest. There’s no real issue because the cast is on top of the material and works together well. Cormack is terrific in a tricky role. She is a highly charismatic actor, which helps because, apart from being bossy, Ruth is a bit of a fink.
Representation is important. During this celebration of World Pride or at any other time, a play that expresses the nuances of the queer perspective can allow audience members to see themselves on stage, perhaps for the first time– and, for that alone, this work is a gift.
Veronica Hannon, Theatre Now
