By Jennifer Beasley.
Emotional, raw and powerful, Katy Warner’s play Refined showcases once again her extraordinary talent to craft individualistic characters.
It’s that time of the year again readers – the almighty Melbourne Fringe Festie! How amazing and here we go on the hectic freeway of amazing talent and creative endeavours.
First up for me is Refined, by Katy Warner. Workshopped at FortyFiveDownstairs in 2019, this dark 75 minute comedy peeks at the lives of 5 students held in detention with one desperate teacher during the mid 90’s in some oil refinery town while Fair Day, put on by the calumnious oil company spewing despair into the sky, is partly a bribe to make the townsfolk forget the ongoing pollution around this small seaside town and their suffocating lives.
Based on Warner’s remembrances of attending the 3rd worse school in WA at the time (I can one-up you here. I went to the worse school in Vic. Avoiding the ferals was like enacting Tomb Raider), Refined paints a realistic picture of desperate kids in a desperate school.
Starting with a dramatic turn and monologue, Larissa, a thrilling turn by Isabella Day, school dress up to her bejesus and eyes wicked witch rimmed in kohl, details a violent encounter with another student. She is all fuming feminine rage, an anarchist with no tears to shed.
Her interactions with her past best friend, (or current best friend. Teenage girls so I don’t know, I can’t work out my own) Courtney (Lizzy Faulkner), the ‘smart one’, reveals the catty behaviour and antisocial mores that are really outlets for the hopelessness that this nowhere town with kids that have a nowhere future. You think you are going to university? Ha. Not going to happen and get real pretty quick.
Then there’s the ADHD sweetness of Xane, a good comic turn by Darcy Bryce, fair fodder for the girl’s whip smart distain, whose own personal destructiveness is due to his inability to understand cause and effect. Fabulous character study as well.
Goth Gen (Sookyung Shin, a Hansen Grad from Red Stitch Theatre) brings a love interest to the play, casting the parentally stressed Wes as the side show as Cortney draws closer to her own true sexuality with her interactions with this Nivana obsessed girl.
Then there is the teacher, Miss, a great performance by Emily Joy (Human Error, Fisk). She’s like so many teachers I’ve known, disillusioned, overworked and trying to keep afloat amidst a rabble of feral kids. However, her evenness shows her awareness of their trials, trying to draw the kids out to the polluted beach as she tries everything to let them know she is listening. She is there.
My companion, a theatre and film director herself, pointed out to me the excellent direction by Lyall Brooks, who also started up Lab Kelpie, who are presenting this play. Brilliant use of space and movement allows the six actors to respond to their characters in a naturalistic way, without overshadowing the other performers. If I do have a criticism, it is that this piece has too many loud moments, giving a busy appearance. The most heartfelt scenes are the budding love interactions of Gen and Courtney in the girl’s toilet, with sensitive soliloquies from both actors. They shine in the quiet.
The other standout soliloquy is from Wes (Eddie Orton). This character took me by surprised, although it shouldn’t as I saw Orton in Touching The Void and he blew me away then too. Initially full of misogynistic pandering, this highly unlikable male reveals the most tender sadness of his abusive home life. Incredible facial and body mobility sets Orton above all the other actors, but only just as all of them do an amazing job.
Excellent costumes by Joseph Noonan meant that the audience could pick up the 90’s era straight away, and the simple use of lighting by Jason Bovaird (whose lightening excelled in The 39 Steps) allows tonal shifts to occur when appropriate.
With a vibe crossed between Derry Girls, The Breakfast Club and Puberty Blues, this play portrays the destructive outcomes that can affect our future generation when hope for the future loses its meaning.
Not always easy to watch but does have a silver lining at the end.
Refined plays at the Square at Trades Hall, at 9:15pm until 12th October 2025.
