4x4x4: Pocket Full of Posies, The Actors’ Hub
The Actors’ Hub Studio, 25 January 2023

As a training ground for actors, whether experienced or new to the craft, The Actors’ Hub offers valuable performance opportunities for its students. At Fringe this comes in the form of 4x4x4, a series of four new productions from the East Perth acting school, each one showing once a week over four weeks.

Kicking things off was Pocket Full of Posies, a wartime murder mystery set within an ecological disaster, where there are multiple secrets to uncover.

Written by The Actors’ Hub director Amanda Crewes, the work is set during World War II at the Inundation of Walcheren. A prologue projected onto a screen informs us that the former island of Walcheren in the Zeeland province of the Netherlands was intentionally bombed and flooded as a tactical move by Allied forces, resulting in horror for the civilian population and damage to the ecology of the island.

Amid the flood there is a fictional tale of two soldiers, one German and one Australian, who end up stranded on the roof of a house with a 19-year-old civilian girl. Opposing forces play out in an almost two-hour rumination on the duality of the self.

Elvin Lamprecht as Nazi soldier Cain utilises his bilingual skills, performing in German and English. Anna Rettay is a delicate Rosie, reliant on movement and facial expression to create her mute character. The cast is completed by Josh Long as Australian soldier Toby, straddling the chasm between a guilt-ridden son and would-be saviour.

All three roles are fairly complex and the actors successfully convey their polarity. The text throws up physical challenges for its players, too – fight scenes, acting an injury, accents. The trio do well to tackle them even if they are not always conquered.

Pocket Full of Posies is told through live action, video projection and voiceover. The video element sets the scene tidily while the stage remains a black box, giving the actors a chance to hone their screen acting as well. Unfortunately, though, the surtitles don’t always match the delivery and at times an ethereal soundscape moves from evocative to distracting.

I also found the characterisation of Rosie problematic. A silent caregiver, a pawn in the soldiers’ war, she’s discardable, and this lack of worth comes as a result of her being an assault survivor (to elaborate further would be a spoiler).

The concept of The Actors’ Hub’s 4x4x4 offers a lucky dip of theatre, and Pocket Full of Posies doesn’t come out a winner for me. But as a metaphor for the devastation of war, on a local and individual level, presented by a group of promising young actors, Pocket Full of Posies delivers.

4x4x4 continues over four nights each week until 18 February 2023.

Pictured top: Anna Rettay, Elvin Lamprecht and Joshua Long in ‘Pocket Full of Posies’. Photo: supplied