'Old Man'

(Belvoir Street Theatre)

'Old Man' is a new Australian play just 70 minutes in length. A mid thirties husband and father finds himself alone at home one morning with all indications that his wife and two children have left him and with no clue as to why or where they have gone. Later we see the wife and the children and it appears from their perspective that it is the husband and father who has disappeared. Still later the husband goes to meet his elderly father (the 'old man') from whom he has been estranged since the age of three.

The early mystery of who has disappeared from whom and why is never explained but in hindsight I sense those scenes represent the fears those characters have of the husband repeating the behaviour of his 'old man'.

It is an interesting play, very nicely acted by the cast of six.

Recommended. ✩✩✩✩