Are you There?
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https://whatsonstkilda.com/event/33284669-a/are-you-there
Date Reviewed: 04/09/2025
A younger crowd this time filled the old St. Kilda fireworks factory theatre. I had only done some surface reading about the production beforehand, but nothing prepared me for the deeply affecting journey that followed. What I expected to be a modest character piece revealed itself as a moving, layered meditation on memory, aging, and the complex ways we hold on to our past.
Are You There follows “three very different women,” specifically Lauren, Colleen and Pia, as they share the foyer of the aged care home Autumn Dale Village. All of these women are in many ways haunted by previous lives and decisions. Pia and her divorce. Colleen and her mother. Lauren is perhaps the most tragic figure of all, lost in her own mind.
Are You There touched me deeply because it reminded me of my frequent visits to my recently deceased grandmother Ria, so I was particularly moved by the study of elderly figures. In both moments of humour and sadness I was struck by the actors onstage. The frayed patience and mental anguish. The jealousy over who gets guests and who does not. The domestic tragedy of being shaped by events rather than shaping them ourselves.
On these ideas, the play raises important questions around our aging society. Themes of firm and infirmity, awareness and consciousness. They are handled very well, and in that way I was reminded of Sandy Stone from Barry Humphries’ The Life and Death of Sandy Stone. The gentle but permanent senility that overcomes individuals, particularly when they move into the nursing home.
I don’t normally comment on costume, but the production’s visual detail was remarkable. Colleen’s garish dress, paired with mismatched socks, clashed delightfully against Pia’s neat work uniform, instantly communicating their differences.
Everybody played their roles effectively, but my favourite was Melanie Madrigali as the “energetic, loud, accidentally foul-mouthed” Pia. Her empathy and patience were tested and strained, which made it richer to experience. Irene Korsten’s writing is authentically Australian, some of that excellent dialogue between Pia and Colleen sounding as if taken straight off the tram with such a casual flow and crispness. Under the steady hand of director Rachel Baring, Are You There emerged as a tender, funny, and deeply humane work, reminding us of the love, patience, and affection that bind people together, even as time begins to pull them apart.