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<\/p>\nDry Land has much to say about abortion, female friendships and being a teenager, but it takes a long time to say it.\u00a0It is the brainchild of American playwright Ruby Rae Spiegel.\u00a0In 2014, Dry Land \u2013 her first full length play \u2013 premiered Off-Broadway.\u00a0Spiegel was 21 years old and still a playwriting student at Yale University at the time.\u00a0That was a remarkable achievement.<\/p>\n
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So, to the storyline:\u00a0We are in Florida and former cheerleader Amy (Luce Wirthensohn) is now a member of the high school swim team.\u00a0Known to sleep around, she finds herself pregnant.\u00a0She can\u2019t bring herself to tell her mother and doesn\u2019t want the baby, so she looks for a way out.\u00a0At the start of the play, she asks another member of the swim team, the good natured but awkward Ester (Cassidy Dunn) to continually punch her in the stomach.<\/p>\n
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As much as Ester seems to want the forge a friendship, Amy appears to take advantage of her. For Amy, Ester seems to be more of a convenience.\u00a0Interestingly, Amy\u2019s so called best friend, fellow swimmer and similarly self-absorbed Reba (Isabelle Duggan) is surprisingly scarce.\u00a0When the three girls do get together, there is a major flare up between Amy and Ester, instigated by the former.\u00a0Meanwhile, Ester\u2019s major focus is being granted a university swimming scholarship.\u00a0She, too, has her insecurities and secrets.<\/p>\n
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There is much to appreciate about Dry Land, but I found the first 45 minutes dragged.\u00a0I understand the playwright had to establish the dynamic between Amy and Ester, but prudent pruning would have been desirable.\u00a0Cassidy Dunn is impressive in a difficult role, which requires her to be vulnerable and then to draw a line in the sand.\u00a0She brings emotional depth to her portrayal of Ester.\u00a0A tough exterior gives way to naked fear as Luce Wirthensohn steps up as Amy.<\/p>\n
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Isabelle Duggan brings entitlement to Reba, while as Ester\u2019s mother\u2019s friend\u2019s son Victor, Enrico Botha plays out a memorable, self-conscious courting ritual with Ester.\u00a0The other cast member is Buzz Billman, who plays the janitor that walks in on Amy and Ester at the start of the production\u2019s most distressing scene.\u00a0That happens late in the piece and, make no mistake, it is confronting.<\/p>\n
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Most of the action takes place in the girls\u2019 change room at school, which is readily established by set and costume designer Abbey Stanway.\u00a0All it requires is a couple of wooden bench seats and a couple of rows of lockers, yet it is evocative.\u00a0Unwanted teenage pregnancies are nothing new and female friendships can be fraught. Combine the two and they can be incendiary.\u00a0That is exactly what Ruby Rae Spiegel has unpacked.<\/p>\n
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Ninety minutes without interval, Dry Land \u2013 directed by Olivia Staaf \u2013 is playing at Theatre Works\u2019 Explosives Factory until 9th<\/sup> March, 2024.<\/p>\n Alex First<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dry Land has much to say about abortion, female friendships and being a teenager, but it takes a long time to say it.\u00a0It is the brainchild of American playwright Ruby Rae Spiegel.\u00a0In 2014, Dry Land \u2013 her first full length play \u2013 premiered Off-Broadway.\u00a0Spiegel was 21 years old and still a playwriting student at Yale…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":154618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[801],"tags":[9864,9861,9123,9863,9862,1354],"class_list":["post-154616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theatre","tag-cassidy-dunn","tag-dry-land","tag-explosives-factory","tag-luce-wirthensohn","tag-ruby-rae-spiegel","tag-theatre-works"],"yoast_head":"\n