REVIEW: Luna Gale

Luna Gale is the name the 19-year-olds Karlie (Lucy Heffernan) and her partner Peter (Jacob Warner) give to their baby, who becomes the centre of a custody battle when her grandmother wishes to take over her care.

The young couple are meth addicts trying to go straight and keep their child, while Karlie’s mother Cindy (Michelle Doake) is a religious fanatic, and this presents a moral dilemma for social worker Caroline (Georgie Parker), who must decide on the child’s fate.

This doesn’t sound like a very enticing night at the theatre but American Rebecca Gilman’s subtle and engaging script takes the audience on a roller coaster ride as our sympathies vacillate between the two opponents in this struggle for control of the baby.

However, it is not until the second act that the play becomes really interesting, when even Caroline appears to be a deeply flawed character with a deceitful solution to the conflict. 

Her character is the most deftly drawn of all as she struggles with the participants as well as the system that she serves. 

Although the subject of the play may appear to be grim or, indeed, boring to those with ostensibly little interest in the subject, the play draws us into a drama that arouses our interest and subtly plays with our sympathies in order to show what a complex situation social workers such as Caroline must deal with.

Director Susanna Dowling does a great job of bringing out the emotional and ethical dimensions of the subject of child custody to give us a richly rewarding drama on the Ensemble stage.

Until Oct 13. Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougall St, Kirribilli. $35-$73+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.ensemble.com.au

Reviewed by Irina Dunn.