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The Exchange Duke of York Hotel, Until 6 March Reviewed 23 Feb The ambience of this production could not have been more authentic. After ordering a beer at the front bar, you are ushered into the covered beer garden of the Duke of York, which is as close to an outback pub as you can get without leaving the parklands. The price of admission includes a two-course meal and you are quickly served a lovely Caesar salad. Then the trio of actors transports you to the pub of a dusty town "somewhere in the middle of nowhere." Writer and actor Phillip Aughey studied his subjects well - presumably spending many hours in pubs in his hometown of Branxton in the Hunter. The exchange takes place between two townies too beered out to care any more - they are refereed by a young pub manager with one eye on the long, straight and rough road out of town. All are convinced the world is a scary place as they each wait a mug’s game of anticipation on a Saturday night. At interval, the audience was served up with a main course of either lasagna or tasty beef stew with mash, which is what I enjoyed. This faultless production has played for over three years mainly to disproportionately large audiences in small towns. All three actors, Aughey with Jonathan Poynter, and especially Wayne Van Keren, have superbly crafted characterisations that ring true and clear. The humour is dry and mixed with pathos concerning active lives reduced to small ones by age and fear. ‘The Exchange’ is an excellent copy of the sort of pub life we are grateful not to have but are sympathetic with. Aughey and his actors affectionately create such a realistic atmosphere you can almost smell it, even if you don’t want to. |
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