Sydney audiences watching Stoning Mary will most likely find themselves in unfamiliar territory. Debbie Tucker Green’s writing is punchy and sparse, negotiating confrontingly raw human issues in a confined, tightly woven narrative. Running at just 65 minutes, Stoning Mary tells three significant, interlocking stories in a style that is so different to what we normally get on Australian stages. It is bold and deliberate theatre-making, and director Lee Lewis handles the production with a strong grip. Most fascinating is the fact that Stoning Mary is a play about third world realities, yet as Tucker Green insists, must be set and cast within the country it is performed in. As such, the play takes a little time to settle into, but once you are within its realms, it is largely a powerful and thought provoking experience.

Don’t expect traditional narrative here. Three stories carry us through the piece, yet the emotional exchanges between characters are witnessed in detail, before the hints of plot unfold. Husband and wife have only one prescription between them both to combat the AIDS virus. We watch as they try and decide who will be able to care better for the other, love more, protect best. Who deserves the medicine? Another couple argue through reminiscences of their lost child. The mother’s obsession with her child’s tiny details, and the father’s determination to snap her out of her own small world. Finally, two sisters meet for perhaps the final time. One of these sisters is Mary, about to meet her end at a public stoning for committing murder. All up, twelve actors take on the roles of these characters and their Ego’s, and Stoning Mary accomplishes more in such a short time, than most full-length works.

Tucker Green’s writing is a stunning example of ‘true’ dialogue, at all times we are aware that the characters on stage are not saying what they really think. This is largely left for the audience to witness, however is explored more explicitly through the use of actors as ‘Ego’s’ in one specific story. As husband and wife argue over veritable life and death, each has an Ego shadowing their back, shouting out commentary of their inner most thoughts, sometimes humorous, often very telling. Tucker Green’s creative decision ensures Lewis must set the play in Australia, however I sensed a kind of ‘limbo’ rather than a definite setting. The dialogue, with its constant use of colloquial ‘aint it’s meant some actors fell into a cockney twang, whilst others retained a middle-ground accent. Perhaps creative license to translate contemporary Australian slang into the script would have grounded it better.

In any case, this is solid ensemble work, and it is for this reason I do not name any particular performers. All characters are instantly apparent as a group, as we enter the theatre. Each character stands waiting, looking anxious, nonchalant, devastated, cold. Throughout the one-act piece they will stay hovering and still, with only a small change of stance or shift to another part of the stage. This seems to be Lewis’ intent – stripped back, bare as anything theatre. There are minimal movements, and no sound design to speak of. Words are projected onto the walls to signify the changes between scenes and one final stage direction signals the end to the performance. With this sparseness, Stoning Mary requires careful attention, and I must admit finding my concentration straying on several instances. Tucker Green’s writing is rhythmic and cyclical, and whilst this is intelligent and deliberate writing, I felt at times the staging did not support her words.

Stoning Mary is however, an important and innovative new work that gives us fresh perspectives to view world events. It is too easy for us, living our loves so separated from the realities of third world life, to alienate ourselves. This is Tucker Green’s chance to place us in the same horrific situation and ask ‘What if?’ As the play leaves us on quite a poetic moment, I am still wondering why Tucker Green chose not to end on a punchier, in-your-face hit. Nevertheless, Stoning Mary is a significant play, and could be watched several times over, to receive the full effect.