Melbourne independent theatre company Hoy Polloy presents the Australian premiere of How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found at the Mechanics Institute in Brunswick. The company is dedicated to producing theatre that will ‘resonate, challenge and entertain audiences’. With this mission statement at its helm it has produced a play worthy of a premiere in this country.

Award-winning British playwright Fin Kennedy has received strong reviews in his native country for his second full-length work. It was the first un-produced play to win the John Whiting Award (established to recognize new and distinctive developments in dramatic writing with particular relevance to contemporary society) in its forty-year history. The Times argues that ‘its deft characterisation and assault on the subject of identity’ prove it to be a worthy winner.

Indeed, it’s a mark of Kennedy’s skill as a writer that the judges were able to envisage its potential off the page. Hoy Polloy’s Artistic Director Wayne Pearn clearly had a strong response to it and the fact that he feels ‘it will electrify audiences and undoubtedly attract a whole new breed of theatre followers’ reflects the company’s commitment to producing vital and challenging plays.

Director Paul King brings a long-term commitment to his role, having directed Frozen by Bryony Lavery in 2006. His most recent role with the company was as set designer for its highly praised rendition of Mamet’s Boston Marriage.

King has managed to bring together a very strong cast, which includes regular stalwarts on the local scene Michael F Cahill and Helen Hopkins. However, it is the casting of relative new-comer David Passmore in the lead role that makes one really stand up and take notice. His mix of physicality and vulnerability act as the perfect recipe as we follow Charlies’ journey from self-belief to self-discovery.

Charlie is a young executive who finds himself travelling a beguiling path towards self-implosion. Forced to re-define himself or perish, he leads the audience towards the inevitable question ‘Can we ever escape who we are?’ He learns how to change his name, clothes and address but hasn’t learnt how to change his soul.

In the end his soul joins the assortment of lost umbrellas and mobile phones that make up lost property in London’s tube and it’s up to Charlie to sort through these metaphors of his shallow existence.

With some contemporary theatre, the trap can be to choose exposition over action, which inhibits the beauty of the ideas. And occasionally ‘How to..’ succumbs to this.

King’s choice of a back-projector to embellish the images set-forth in the dialogue only distract instead of enhance. While Charlie’s inner-voice monologues may progress the story and give insight to his conflict, they also pad and weigh down the narrative. His anguish becomes too visible and acts as a buffer to our empathy, which ends up isolating the audience. This may work for a play that is fundamentally political but when you’re exploring notions of identity then well-developed characters are crucial.

In the end however, this piece is worth seeing. It’s themes of loss and self in the wake of the destructive forces of contemporary society are highly relevant. And the sleek, stark set combined with a well-disciplined cast reinforces the fact that we are experiencing modern theatre.