“Clare Hughes is superb as Sam…It is a tour de force performance“
Kate Stratford
Old Fitz
Sydney
To October 5, 2024
Adolescence is a fraught time for most of us; a time of transition from childhood to adulthood rife with issues of independence, identity, sexuality, mental health, identity and relationships. For Sam, author Madeleine Nunn’s sole protagonist in Sitting, Screaming,
these issues are compounded by her dad’s prostate cancer diagnosis. No-one understands – except one teacher at school whose office and person become a refuge.
Anyone with more than a few years of teaching in their life know what is going to happen next. Or what used to happen next. Hopefully far less so these days. Clare Hughes is superb as Sam whose coping mechanisms include acute observations and truanting. Her resilience and courage in the face of grooming by a power figure who she trusted with her vulnerability make for a remarkable young woman. Hughes performs vocal gymnastics and subtle physical shifts to deliver the range of characters who people Sam’s life – even the predator Mr David.
It is a tour de force performance supported by excellent design components especially the soundscape (Sam Cheng). And of course, with Lucy Clements in the director’s chair, this piece was always going to be in safe hands.
The very linear narrative structure offers little in the way of surprises. There is an element of predictability here and a sense that there could have been something more which would have enhanced the despair and struggle, and made the script a little more powerful in its message. Similar successful scripts offer a twist in the tale or the telling.
This is a worthy story with an intelligent, resilient character at its core. Part of the new Works Festival, it plays at the Old Fitz until October 5.
Kate Stratford, Theatre Now
