Review of preview performance, 31 July 2024
A contemporary Australian Gothic play by Maxine Mellor, Horizon sees young couple Sky and Cole hitting the highway. Sky is on vacation from her high-stress legal job; Cole is returning to his family home because his father is terminally ill. They take turns driving, teasing, and improvising blockbuster voiceovers for their adventure. Cole has had the car since he was a teenager, and they uncover a collection of mixtape cassettes in the glovebox that sets off an unexpected chain of events. The deeper Cole and Sky go into the country, the deeper their questions and suspicions about each other become, and the darker the secrets they begin to uncover.
Directed by Ian Lawson, this is Playlab’s second production of Horizon, which premiered in 2021 at the same venue. Horizon is an AWGIE Award winning work for Best Stage Original Script and was the 2022 winner of the David Williamson Prize.
Cole is flippant and funny but his boyish nature belies a history he has tried to suppress. A high-profile assault case from Sky’s professional life leads to further personal revelations for both characters, and their experiences are thrown into relief. Pursued by their past, and perhaps by dingoes, Cole and Sky keep driving. Who is right? Who is wrong? Who gets to decide?
The play alternates between conversational dialogue, poetic diatribes by each character that become increasingly emotional, and the improvised voiceovers to their fake films, which also become darker and deadlier. The action of the play takes places in and around an old Ford Falcon, which revolved at different times throughout the performance, complemented by precise lighting and video design.
Maxine Mellor’s writing spirals beautifully around the characters, returning to key ideas and phrases repeatedly but bringing fresh meaning or a new revelation each time. In addition to its core themes of abuse, privilege, and power, Horizon touches on mining and environmental concerns, grief and family dynamics, and the nature of memory and secrets. The dialogue refers to household names of Australian outback isolation and terror – the Chamberlains, Ivan Milat – to further build the tension and imply monsters lurking around every corner.
Julian Curtis and Ashlee Lollback star as Cole and Sky and there was an excellent chemistry and natural, believable escalation of emotion between them. Julian Curtis drew a great deal of complexity from Cole; played with less nuance, the character might have been easy to pigeonhole and dislike, but Curtis kept the audience uncertain as to whether Cole was a victim as well as a perpetrator. The actors moved smoothly in and out of the car, standing on the exterior and delivering proclamations that showed the audience more of their interior worlds.
Video design by Nathan Sibthorpe was key to the play’s setting, with the repeating landscape becoming increasingly surreal as the play progressed but always with a clear sense of momentum and movement. Sound design by Guy Webster contributed to the play’s tension and energy, although the background music occasionally overpowered the actors’ voices. Lighting design by David Walters was excellent, illuminating Cole and Sky both inside and outside the car as well as suggesting the white lines of a highway and the headlights of other cars flicking past in a steady, rhythmic way.
Horizon was thrilling and unnerving, an atmospheric journey that wove modern social commentary into a well-established genre and was made frighteningly believable by the sharp writing and skilled actors.
Horizon will be performed at the Underground Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm from 31 July – 10 August
For ticketing and further information, visit the Playlab website
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