"The Milan/Cortina Winter Olympics are over, the Paralympics are in progress, and the FIFA World Cup is just around the corner. For weeks now we have been presented with the spectacle of elite athletes pushing their bodies to the absolute limit for personal and national glory. We have witnessed the elation and the despair that success and failure engenders. But rarely do we consider, seriously consider, what goes into those few minutes of Herculean effort to snatch the golden ring.
The Play and Its Characters
Fair Play, written by Ella Road, does just that. It gives us sharp, unblinking insight into the all-consuming world of elite sport: the pain, loneliness, alienation, the long-term physical & mental damage, the sacrificed careers & personal relationships, by focusing on two young athletes - Ann (Rachel Crossan), a talented, intelligent girl whose parents are Nigerian, and who lives in the wrong London suburb, and Sophie (Elodie Westhoff), a girl from a privileged upper middle-class background from a London suburb with a desirable postcode. Sophie's good, very good, but is she good enough, and how does she react when this 'outsider' enters her domain and demonstrates apparently effortless skill?
Themes: Competition, Identity, and Fairness
Part of the pleasure of Road's script is the finesse with which she analyses the many themes and contrasting forces that inhabit this balancing act of competition and shifting allegiances: class, race, gender, friendship, identity, body autonomy, the politics and economics of sport, exploitation and fairness. One of the play's most potent questions is, "Is there such a thing as a genuine 'level playing field' in sport, and who gets to decide?"
Direction and Production Design
Emma Whitehead and her wonderful team of designers have created a production of clarity and precision, whose power lies not simply in the strength of its arguments and the appeal of its characters, but in every element of visual and aural storytelling - from the bursts of elegant choreography that punctuate the narrative, to the evocative music and soundscape, the austere minimalism of the set that becomes a canvas onto which the iconography of this sporting life is projected. EJ Zielinski's lighting design is particularly noteworthy.
Performances
But all this creative excellence is merely background to the performances of Rachel Crossan and Elodie Westhoff, who navigate the challenging material with physical grace, intellectual rigour and emotional nuance. Their dynamic, lively faces communicate with complete authenticity the richness and complexity of their inner worlds.
Overall Impression
This production engaged me in ways I hadn't expected, compelling me to join these characters on their emotional journey of twists & turns, highs & lows, going to dark places that I didn't anticipate, but it was a satisfying journey. My one reservation is that the script was a bit repetitive in the first half. Road doesn't seem to trust her audience to 'get it' the first time. It could have been fifteen minutes shorter. Nevertheless, Fair Play is a powerful play, with a timely message that succeeds on so many levels. 4 stars.
Performance Information
Fair Play is performing at the Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo till 21st March.
Reviewed by: Nick Bennett
Photography by: Robert Miniter