Anniversary Backspace, until Sunday

HOBART playwright David Lander’s substantial one-act play, Anniversary, is the first of three new local plays to premiere as part of the Tasmanian Theatre Company’s Festival of New Tasmanian Theatre.

The action unfolds on a warmly lit, split-level set, the Battery Point home of affluent Russel (James Casey) and Georgia (Jane Polley).

From Russel’s anxious fingering of the dinnerware as he awaits his wife’s arrival, we suspect this evening will not go according to plan. Lander doesn’t disappoint.

A violent home invasion by two women, Trish and Alison, leads to a string of revelations.

One character is not as she seems. Another surprises us with her guile and determination. A final climactic note is produced. It is the stuff of farce and much of this energetic production is indeed funny, even riotous at times.

Status is the hand maiden of this kind of ensemble playing, as the three female characters, in particular, slug it out.

Sex, money and fertility are wielded like clubs, as the stage is progressively strewn with broken glass and crockery.

Jane Binning gives a convincing performance as the perceptive low life Alison, while Bryony Geeves, playing her accomplice Trish, revels in her final Mills and Boon triumph.

Susan Williams’ largely naturalistic direction requires some suspension of disbelief.

More underscoring of the farce at the core of the play may drive future audiences’ enjoyment further.