Splinter
Griffin Theatre COMPANY · September 2019
SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross, Sydney
Tales of missing children have always held a terrible fascination.
Celtic folklore chilled the bones of many a superstitious new mother with stories of babies stolen from their beds by envious fairies, changelings left in their place. These days, when a child disappears the media grabs us by the throat and won’t let us go. These disappearances haunt us for days, weeks, years.
In the dark of a Sydney winter, Hilary Bell’s disquieting and downright chilling thriller Splinter channels tabloid news and primal fears alike.
A couple are reunited with their missing daughter. Fierce love has sustained them through her unbearable absence. But now she’s home…something just isn’t right. How do they stop their imaginations running wild? Maybe if they return to the beach house where they spent their happiest summers, they’ll return to their old selves.
Revisiting the sinister territories of Wolf Lullaby, Splinter reunites Bell’s supreme atmospherics with another powerhouse performance from sister, Lucy (Speaking in Tongues, Dreams in White) as a mother forced to confront the unthinkable. Directed by Lee Lewis and starring Lucy Bell and Simon Gleeson, this claustrophobic chamber piece questions how well we know our families. Up close and intimate in the Stables, there’s nowhere to hide.
Text attribution: Griffin Theatre Company
“set designer Tobhiyah Stone Feller has created a convincing wooden beach shack, with the moody, shadowy lighting by Benjamin Brockman, eerie sound by Alyx Dennison, and abstract video design by Mic Gruchy working together to build a growing sense of unease that effectively heightens the mother’s jumpy nerves, and the father’s growing suspicions.”
— Jo Litson, Limelight
“splinter is a complete and sustained universe unto itself, and you feel it here on the haunted beach house of a set (designed by Tobhiyah Stone Feller). Lit by Benjamin Brockman with doubtful shadows and flickering candles, the atmosphere is all the spookier for Mic Gruchy’s video projection design and Alyx Dennison’s otherworldly sound design; together, these elements form a symphony of dread.”
— Cassie Tongue, Audrey Journal
Credits & Acknowledgements
Nominated Best Lighting Design for a Main Stage Production - Sydney Theatre Awards 2019
Set & Costume Design Tobhiyah Stone Feller
Director Lee Lewis
Playwright Hilary Bell
Lighting Design Benjamin Brockman
Video Design Mic Gruchy
Composer & Sound Design Alyx Dennison
Production Management Ryan Garreffa
Stage Manager Rebecca Poulter
Cast Lucy Bell, Simon Gleeson
Photographer Brett Boardman