Dawn King’s Foxfinder is both beautifully eerie and faintly soul crushing in its captivating exploration of governmental control and human frailty.
Sam and Judith Covey have clearly suffered through a tough year. The stage setting alone told a bleak tale, with constant downpours outside, and the rain-streaked walls taunting my poor, anal retentive heart to dial a plumber and slap on a fresh coat of paint. When William Bloor arrives to investigate the Covey’s farm for productivity and infestations, it reveals a dystopian world with the government fiercely monitoring failing farms, and farmers living in perpetual fear.
From the outset, the interactions between William, the most exquisitely awkward character I’ve seen on stage, and the Covey’s, with their warmth and just barely restrained desperation, was enjoyable and fascinating to watch.
Whilst it was a struggle to concentrate, as William so starkly tapped into every teenage crush I had on the awkward, bookish misfit, the exploration of the power of this fox-driven propaganda to keep both the oppressors and the oppressed under the thumb is powerful and gut wrenching.
Sam’s grief and guilt over the death of their son is beautifully explored and used to show how easily people can be manipulated when they are desperate for answers. This runs alongside the love and anxiety of Judith in protecting her husband and their farm as she tries to comprehend William and fight against the madness all around her.
Completely aside from the spellbinding moments where he had his shirt off, it is William’s slow unveiling of his self-denial, sexual repression and Salem-like witch hunter that is the most stunning to watch, however.
The beautifully acted progression of the Coveys and William are so mesmerising and honest, that they manage to simultaneously pull your sympathies in each of their directions, even as Sam and William inch closer and closer to their respective meltdowns.
Despite being someone who was trying to avoid alcohol, I felt I was essentially held at gunpoint to go for a wine afterwards to ease my nerves. That being the one downside of Foxfinder, it will completely enthral you, but will almost certainly drive you to drink.
Foxfinder is being played until 17 August at the Red Stitch Theatre in St. Kilda.
Image credits: David Whiteley, Joanne Trentini & Rosie Lockhart
