[THEATRE] ANNA K @ The Malthouse Theatre Review

I love theatre that makes me think, better still I love theatre that is going to make its audience think and perhaps come to a realisation. As someone that works in the media industry I love to observe what is going on within it and around me, and it is strangely funny that I went to see Anna K at The Malthouse Theatre last night because it addressed something that I have becoming very aware of in the media industry over the past few months.

In Anna K the show is named after its lead character, Anna K (Caroline Craig – whom many would now from her role as Tess Gallagher in long-lasting TV drama Blue Heelers) a respected journalist who is known for exposing the truth (not matter the cost) on her week-nightly 8pm news show.

She soon finds herself becoming the news after it is revealed that she has left her husband and is involved in a relationship with Lexie (Callan Colley), a SAS soldier whom she interviewed about an accident that he observed while on deployment. As Anna K escapes her marriage and spends time with Lexie in a hotel everything begins to go wrong. Her husband starts to use their child as a bargaining chip in what is promising to be a dirty divorce, her son doesn’t want to talk to her and the press are starting to portray her as a home wrecker who has also acted immorally with her work. Worse still the paparazzi are now camped outside the hotel room desperate to get a shot of her leaving.

Written by Suzie Miller and directed by Carissa Licciardello I found that Anna K brilliantly presented something to its audience that I have been thinking about for a while now. In 2022 as a society we seem to love to celebrate the role of women in the media but at the same time it seems that there are vultures out there just waiting for the smallest slip-up in order to try and bring them down… yet if it is a male at the centre of the controversy it is often swept under the carpet.

I found that Miller’s script was amazing in bringing that point to the stage and she needs to be congratulated for the fact that she never held back with the topic and as a result the audience are taken on an emotional ride as we watch Anna K go from a up-front and strong journalist to someone that is suddenly falling into a whirlpool of mental illness.

Miller’s script provides the perfect fodder for actress Caroline Craig who takes hold of this role and brings one of the most amazing performances that we will see on a Melbourne stage this year. I found Craig’s performance to be utterly stunning, she never leaves the stage for the entire 90 minutes of the performance and I often found myself feeling heart-broken as she took the audience on the emotional journey that her character is going through.

She is well supported by Callan Colley whom I can see has a big career ahead of him on both stage and screen. He is a naturalistic style to his acting that made him believable and likable as Lexie. His scenes with Craig bleed with romance, drama and romance and the chemistry between them on the stage was electric whether it be a time when they were depicting passion or in the middle of a fight.

The set design of Anna Cordingley also goes a long way to making this show work so well. I’ll admit there was a real ‘wow’ moment as I walked into the theatre and saw the detail of the ‘hotel room’ on the stage. From the bath through to the lobby and sizable room it was impossible not to imagine that you had just walked into somebody’s hotel room and that went a long way towards helping with the realism of the scene that was playing out in front of me. That set design also allows for a neon sign that reads ‘stupid f**king slut’ to disguise itself as an advertising sign outside the hotel room – that becomes important because not only is it something that is said about her on social media but it seems to be the ‘title’ that Anna K most takes to heart. Its position on the stage above Caroline Craig constantly reminds the audience of the burden and torture that Anna K has to endure throughout the story.

Anna K is easily one of the best theatre shows I have seen this year. An amazing set, an intense and dramatic storyline that takes its audience on a poignant journey and a stunning performance by Caroline Craig makes this one show that you simply shouldn’t miss.