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 Oh I do like a Family Drama – and Things I Know to be True is definitely that. Set over the course of a year, we properly get to know Bob and Fran Price and their grown up children – and fall a little bit in love with them.
All the cast were excellent, but it was Sue Brodie as Fran and John McSpadyen as Bob who were the absolute heart of this piece. The warmth of their relationship was completely convincing, and the dynamic between them and their children was a joyously realistic thing to watch. The interplay between the four grown-up children and their own particular alliances were nicely characterized. Madison Leach was touching as the babied youngest daughter, Rosie. Bailey Finch was suitably annoying as social-climbing Ben, who gets into terrible financial difficulty and falls apart. Of course his mother bails him out (he’s her favourite) – we all know mothers are a soft touch. David Lindley-Pilley gave a nuanced performance as the conflicted Marc who becomes Mia. His fondness and slight exasperation with his youngest sister was nicely played. Rachel Bothamley was an absolute power-house as Pip, and the complex relationship she has with her mother was beautifully portrayed.
Although there are no big plot twists (apart from the surprising sad ending) there a lot to engage with in this thoroughly relatable piece. There’s disappointments, some resentments and all of the characters have their flaws (like real people). There were some great laughs as well – much of it familiarity with how families speak to each other. We don’t even realise that’s how we sound until we hear it so accurately portrayed in front of us. I ended up really caring about the characters, though, so all credit to Rosanna Preston’s direction of a solid piece of script-writing that I felt I knew them after less than two-hour’s worth of acquaintance.
Much of the action takes place in a Bob and Fran’s garden - Angelika Michitsch’s design perfectly created a splendid environment, which I had no trouble at all believing was a space that the family had inhabited for years and where many of their special moments had taken place. The garden swing was a nice touch.
Lights by Rob Hebblethwaite were suitably sunny and cheerful when the action was garden-based, but also helped focus the audience attention when the action shifted to “indoors”, and they created a fitting mood when the poignant ending of the piece was played out. Colin Guthrie’s sound design, with his own original music, brought a lovely atmosphere – subtly underscoring the transitions as the action moved forward in time.
Although it was clear that the action was set in Australia, there were no direct references to exact places and no attempts at Australian accents. After a few minutes of wondering about this, I stopped caring because I could see that the drama was centred on a universal theme. Sometimes attempts at accents can be distracting as audience end up comparing who can do the accent and who can’t and don’t really focus on the action – and that would have been a shame; I believe the director made the right choice here.
So I very much enjoyed a few belly laughs, a bit of a cry, and still being down in the bar by 9.30. Absolute ripper of an evening.
Photography by Pau Ros
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