Review: The Father (hARTSpace & PIP Theatre)

*Tony Nixon and Janelle Bailey as André and Anne (front), Ophelia Novak as Laura (back). Image credit: Kris Anderson*

Content Warning: Depictions of dementia, emotional distress, themes of aging and mortality, family conflict, and sensitive language and scene depicting elder abuse.

Heartbreaking and beautifully crafted, The Father is a story of love, loss, and caretaking against the cruelty of memory loss and dementia.

*Janelle Bailey and Tony Nixon as Anne and André (L), Reagan Warner as Pierre (R). Image credit: Kris Anderson*

Produced by hARTSpace and directed by Angela Witcher, the Brisbane professional premiere of The Father was presented by PIP Theatre in Milton. Written by Florian Zeller and translated from French to English by Christopher Hampton, The Father is a portrait of memory loss and dementia, as seen through the eyes of the person experiencing it. André lives in his Paris apartment and is the patriarch of his family – a very capable man, not an old man who needs looking after. He has two daughters, but it is only Anne who comes to visit. Or perhaps Anne and her husband have moved to London? Does Anne have a husband, or not? Is this even André’s apartment?

*Tony Nixon as André and Jade Moon as Laura. Image credit: Kris Anderson*

Exhausted by caring for her ailing father, whose behaviour is increasingly erratic and upsetting, Anne (Janelle Bailey) has moved André into the apartment she shares with her husband Pierre (Reagan Warner). She has tried to organise in-house carers for her father, but they have left repeatedly due to his behaviour. Laura (Jade Moon) is the final hope, a sweet young woman who reminds André of his youngest daughter. Otherwise, Pierre assures her, André will have to be moved to a care facility.

*Tony Nixon as André (L) and Jesse Blachut as Pierre (R). Image credit: Kris Anderson*

As the play progressed, both the audience and André became less sure of things – characters, locations, and events blurred together and became tangled, and time passed in unexpected ways. Seeing the scenes unfold from Andre’s perspective also confuses the audience: Where are we? Who are these people? Did that really happen?

*Ophelia Novak and Tony Nixon as Anne and André. Image credit: Kris Anderson*

Throughout the play, André’s confusion was emphasised by the changing of actors in the same roles, with Ophelia Novak playing the roles of Anne, Laura, and a nurse, and Jesse Blachut also playing the role of Pierre. Tony Nixon delivered an outstanding, devastating performance as André, with an endearing sureness of self that weighed against his affecting vulnerability and increasing distress. Nixon’s performance has really stuck with me in the week since I saw the play.

*The cast and crew rearrange the set of* The Father *during a scene transition*. *Image credit: Kris Anderson*

The Father is built around repetition – scenes, phrases, and scenarios played out again and again, in slightly different ways or with a different combination of actors. Adding to the confusion, the set design evolved throughout the play, with long blackouts in which furniture and artworks were changed and re-arranged by the cast and crew. Lighting design by Tim James created a naturalistic setting, often indicating the time of day to add to the patchwork-style scenes.

*Janelle Bailey and Tony Nixon as Anne and André. Image credit: Kris Anderson*

A jigsaw puzzle of feeling and forgetting, The Father took the audience through the changing weather of André’s moods and memories. In addition to the raw emotional impact of its lead performance, the play cleverly manipulated space, time, and reality in its storytelling to create empathy for André and the people who love and care for him.

The Father will be performed at PIP Theatre, Milton, from 13 – 24 June 2023.

For ticketing and further information, visit the PIP Theatre website