Mystery and mirth with The Spook
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Enter a world of espionage, intrigue and betrayal when Malthouse Theatre’s production of The Spook comes to Geelong Performing Arts Centre for a limited season of four performances from July 31 to August 2.
Martin Porter is a secret agent. Recruited by ASIO at a local footy match, he is thrust into a life of deception, bugged conversations, misplaced loyalty, romance, dark glasses and ideas of grandeur. National heroism is imminent for this 19 year-old fitter and turner as he exits a life of the mundane and infiltrates the bowels of a national threat - the South Bendigo Communist Party.
It’s 1965, in a South Bendigo garage and a long way from the streets of Khrushchev’s Russia, or the blooming of one thousand flowers in China. The formal assemblies should be addressing the great issues facing the revolution, yet here they are, simply grappling with the administrative minutiae of declining sales of The Tribune and dwindling memberships as a result of the local Maoist slide shows.
As Martin obsessively attends his evening class in Marxist theory, and Party members Eli and George Tassekis welcome him into their family like a second son, life in Bendigo becomes fraught with danger - and our spy is about to get his new friends into a whole lot of trouble!
Inspired by a true story, Melbourne playwright Melissa Reeves (co-author of Who’s Afraid of the Working Class) marries whimsical comedy with an astute understanding of how politics works at a micro-level in Australia, creating a bittersweet personal odyssey with a twenty-first century bite. With a formidable cast of seven including Kevin Harrington (TV’s Sea Change and the controversial Underbelly, feature films The Dish, The Honourable Wally Norman), Odette Joannies, Denis Moore, Tony Nikolakopoulos, Genevieve Picot, Luke Ryan and Anne-Louise Sarks, The Spook promises an evening of mystery and mirth.
The Spook is part of the 2008 Alcoa Theatre Season. Experience the intrigue in the Ford Theatre from Thursday July 31 to Saturday August 2 at 8pm, with a matinee performance on Saturday August 2 at 1pm.
Tickets are available on 5225 1200 or here online.