Last night's offering was Lucy, playing at Canstage's Berkeley Street Theatre.

Canstage tells us that "Lucy is a play about newfound love between a mother and daughter and the revelations it triggers, including a provocative new theory of evolution."

As you can imagine, it's a pretty intense show.

Sue joined me last night as my show-partner. She grew up with theatre-loving parents, but reached a point in her life where she started to actively dislike theatre. Last year she rekindled her enjoyment of theatre, but when she's thinking of something fun to do on a Saturday night, it still isn't top of mind.

I was wondering how the intensity of the show would play with a non-theatre person. When I asked Sue what her overall impression was she told me that it was kind of mixed, but that overall she enjoyed it. She said "there was a lot to think about."

It's absolutely true, I found myself wondering all sorts of stuff during the show. Like, what has made it so that they can imagine this is the inside world of an autistic child, what would it be like to see this show if you had an autistic child, how did that actor study for the role, and on and on. My mind was going a mile a minute.

Sue said she really liked the mother, and the way the mother was treated in the show. She fully expected that the mother would develop affection for her estranged daughter and was kind of dreading that predictable outcome, but she found herself really liking the way they did it. She said her favourite part was probably when the mother said "Lucy is fine the way she is."

I'm not sure if I have a favourite part. I liked the show overall, but nothing leaps out at me specifically. I do have to say that I was very impressed with the use of the set pieces, I like the 'transformers' approach to staging, one minute it's a couch, the next it's a desk...

Sue told me that she didn't like the moments when it felt like she was being lectured too, she said "it got really pedantic, it felt like autism 101, very didactic". Interestingly I barely even noticed that. Probably one of my mind going a mile a minute moments.

There was a lot going on in this show, it was a hearty meal of theatre and we had a good time talking about it afterwards. I think it would be a great thing to go to when you can spend an hour or two at the pub afterwards talking about it.

Details:

- Lucy runs until this Saturday (April 14) at Canstage's Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley Street, South of Front)
- Show time is at 8pm, with a Wednesday matinee at 1:30pm and a Saturday matinee at 2:00pm
- Ticket prices range from $20 - $55. Rush seats are available for any performance one hour prior to the show and are half the regular ticket price.

Photo of Seana McKenna and Meg Roe by Chris Gallow