Travelling North by David Williamson, directed by Cate Clelland. At Canberra Rep until  June 27. Reviewed by ARNE SJOSTEDT.

Be prepared to let this one send you deep into the autumnal pace of the latter part of life. 

This production of David Williamson’s 1979 play leaves you quietly contemplative. It tugs at your sense of mortality and at the motivations that guide you through your life – not just at its beginnings, but those that emerge as it begins to slow down.

Travelling North has been described as David Williamson’s autumn sonata. And there is certainly a lot of autumn about it, both in the drama being played out and in this Cate Clelland-directed production.

There is a tempo to the show, no doubt quite deliberately established and embodied through the music played during the many scene changes. It is measured and unhurried. Then there is Clelland’s set design, a large painted floral scene that ran the entirety of the back wall. It is beautiful and tranquil, creating a sense of expansive nature that matched the play’s setting. Broken up into three separate levels it also provided opportunity to stage the play’s different locations.

Now to the play itself. Though it is subtly entertaining and insightful throughout, this isn’t exactly a fun experience. But nor should it be. It is about a couple travelling north, to spend their autumn years in Queensland’s subtropics. It is about the decline of one half of that couple to ill health. But it is in the playing out of that couple’s lives, and the lives Williamson connects to them, that the real interest of the play lies.

To perform the work, Clelland has given the opportunity for a number of performers to return to the stage after various life events had taken them in other directions. Granting people the opportunity to pursue the dramatic arts is one of Clelland’s generous contributions to Canberra’s theatrical landscape. And it was interesting to see how each performer interpreted their role, to give this production its unique personality. It was equally interesting to see how the personality of the show impacted their performance. Because this play really did seem to have its own personality.

All this feels mostly justified. There was purpose in the almost banal scenes of normal life simply taking its course, and deep interest in seeing Pat Gallagher’s portrayal of the elderly Frank’s decline. But this show did feel unnecessarily turgid at times. There was little to break up its steady, rolling rhythm, drawn out by the frequent and quite careful scene changes. While this all leant into the overriding sense that this was the story about people no longer in the prime of their youth, it gave the show a certain monotone even its bright and tranquil set couldn’t quite overcome.

That said, this production of Travelling North still succeeded in leaving a positive, hopeful sense that life truly is beautiful, even amidst its imperfections.