As two lives collide so too does their respective trauma in Edith Pearlman’s Tenderfoot, staged by Penny Cherns at the Drayton Arms Theatre, in a brief whirlwind of physicalised drama that neglects to match its source text with an effective language of its own, instead resorting to a physicalisation and theatrical choreography as a substitute for a proper fleshing out of its dramatic tensions.

From an upstage centre entrance, a dramatically lit figure enters — cigar in hand — in a promise of style that soon feels forgotten amidst the bare wooden chairs and black box feel of a space intermittently filled with dynamic explosions of effortful movement as Paige (Abi Kessel) and Bobby (Aaron Cash) dance with, between, and around one another.

From the outset, it is a physical language that is established with clarity; ultimately one that feels to detract from the quiet and delicate undercurrents of desire and tension that bubble between the characters across their encounter. This physical theatre relentlessly undulates throughout — irrespective of the rise and fall of the story’s breath. The absence of the text's searing tension is felt acutely in the Drayton’s intimate 51-seater auditorium.

Narrating their own actions throughout in third-person, questions arise as to the true voices of these characters: their perspectives, desires, and needs that are left disembodied by objective distance. Longing for a story to be shown, not just told, the audience is instead explained the actions, tensions, and drama left unrealised on stage. As the severity of the subject matter becomes increasingly profound, this lack of intention too becomes more grave and leaves us feeling a detachment from what is otherwise an immensely nuanced text with immense theatrical potential.

For a play about witnessing, and living beyond, disaster, this conflict feels absent in its matter-of-factness and feels unfortunately more academic than dramatic, as it fights with its own form.

** Two stars

Reviewed by: Kane Taylor

Tenderfoot plays at Drayton Arms Theatre until 30 April, with tickets available here.