REVIEW: Honour

Joanna Murray-Smith takes a familiar domestic scenario – a man who leaves his wife of many years for a much younger woman – and examines the perspectives and feelings of each in detail with great humour and compassion.

She also presents the effect of the breakup on the daughter of the couple, as well as the responses of the interloper to the two women – mother and daughter – whose lives she has thrown into turmoil.

As Murray-Smith says, “Honour is a boxing match of a play, a series of scenes in which different combinations of the four characters grapple with the aftermath of this act of betrayal. All four are struggling with the meaning and stamina of love in all its forms: marital, long-term, new, passionate, parental and so on. The play commences when life throws a grenade into one small world and its inhabitants have to respond in the moment.”

And we the audience must also respond as we watch the whole catastrophe unfold before us.

Kate Champion’s direction leaves us with empathy for all the characters – Lucy Bell as Honour, Huw Higginson as her unfaithful husband George, Poppy Lynch as Sophie the daughter, and Ayeesha Ash as Claudia.

Another terrific play from Murray-Smith!

Until Jun 5. Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougall St, Kirribilli. $38-$79+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.ensemble.com.au