In the past two years alone, Craig Silvey’s iconic novel – being hailed as Australia’s answer to To Kill A Mockingbird – has been turned into a film, added to the VCE booklist and adapted into not one, but three stage productions. Adapted and scripted by local playwright Kate Mulvany, Jasper Jones is Melbourne Theatre Company’s latest addition to its repertoire – a dark but wickedly funny play that, despite being set in a fictional West Australian town in 1965, seems particularly poignant and relevant.
One night, Jasper Jones – the bad boy of Corrigan, a fictional West Australian outback town – bangs on Charlie Bucktin’s window one summer night. He leads him around the town, through the woods and down to a dam, where he shows Charlie a secret that rocks the bookish 13 year-old to his core. The story follows Charlie as he tries to keep a secret that is a ticking time bomb, testing his own friendships and sheltered small-town life.
Charlie is played by MTC newcomer Nicholas Denton – having had a role in ABC’s Glitch, running his own production company and appearing in countless theatre shows around Melbourne, the 24 year-old is relishing the larger-scale production.
“It’s my first show performing to more than, like, 100 people – this is 580 people a night – so it’s insane,” he says. “I really love the company. Everyone thinks there’s a sort of elitist element to them, but they’re actually all really humble people – it really is like being part of a family.
“I’ve never worked with people who have been so sophisticated in how they work, but also so grounded and humbled in the way they approach the work, it’s really lovely. There are no egos involved in this, we’re all really self-deprecating so that’s the nice part about it.”
Denton is endearingly naive, intuitive and inherently likeable on stage, as is the rest of the cast: the minor characters often stealing the show, like the hysterically funny Harry Tseng as Charlie’s overzealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu.
Between Jeffrey, the son of Vietnamese migrants and title character Jasper Jones (Guy Simon), an Aboriginal boy outcast by his small outback town, themes through the play seem to echo issues that are still sickeningly prevalent in Australia today. Our treatment of refugees; the systemic issues faced by indigenous youth – in over 50 years, Jasper Jones reminds how far we still need to come as a society.
“This is such a well-received book, there’s actually a diehard fan base that really want it to work, so they’re listening out for their favourite bits – and that’s the great thing, they’re listening really carefully,” Denton says of the pressure to take on the adaptation of what looks set to become an iconic Australian novel. “I really think it’s evolved; it’s a lot darker now.
“I think what that does is show you the severity of the situation these people, these young boys in the play are in. It puts it in front of you in a really frank way and I think that’s great. It’s a really wonderful thing to work with.”
The show with its stunning revolving set and eerie, atmospheric lighting design from Anna Cordingley and Matt Scott perfectly recreates the small-town mentality of Corrigan – shocked to its core when word starts to spread of Jasper and Charlie’s secret. It is equal parts quaint and creepy; familiar but very ethereal.
“It’s not particularly happy at any point,” Denton laughs. “But it really does make you appreciate what you’ve got, and the people around you.”
It’s not hard to see why the adaptations of Jasper Jones are coming at us thick and fast. The novel lends itself to the stage with ease, and Mulvany’s transformation of the dark coming-of-age story into a script is moving, sharp, funny and beautifully concise – brought to life by a stellar young cast who seem to truly understand the deeper connotations of the story.
For the 24-year-old Denton, his first MTC foray is surely just the beginning – he’s certainly one of Australian theatre’s most bright young up-and-comers.
