The Trees Beneath the Lake exposes hidden depths

The Trees Beneath the Lake
By Arthur Meek
Directed by Simon Bennett
Auckland Theatre Company
Maidment Theatre
Until September 27 

The one thing that most people who have lost money in failed investment schemes will tell you is that the men who were looking after their money were so nice, so knowledgeable and so honest.

William Campbell (Michael Hurst) is one of those and we get to hear his story in ATC’s latest play The Trees Beneath the Lake. The rest of the world may think that William is a crook but his nearest and dearest such as his mother, Nieve (Catherine Wilkin) and wife Jennifer (Theresa Healey) still think he is wonderful. Because, as he explains to the audience he has some tricks which he uses to endear people to him and even though he may be going through a rough patch at the moment either a little bit more time or a little bit more money will see everything right.

William has returned to the family home in Central Otago escaping his financial meltdown in New York and similar problems which he is having in New Zealand, hoping to win a defamation case with the help of his flighty legal adviser Ruth (Brooke Williams).

The play is set against the historical backdrop of his family’s fight against the flooding of their land which created Lake Dunstan and the Clyde dam in the 1980s when his parents fought the government over the scheme but ended uplosing their house and land. It also refers back to the ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff and William’s involvement in exposing the fraud.

Like the trees which have been covered by the waters of Lake Dunstan, however, it is not just William who has a few unresolved problems – each of the members of the family seems to have hidden secrets.

So the play has a lot of relevant political, financial and social issues, with William’s initial promotional spiel to the audience having him look like a messianic John Key returned to spread his financial acumen among the general population.

While the back story of Williams’s life as financial guru was slowly revealed, there were parallel revelations of family secrets and it's here that the play came alive. However, these revelations were mainly in the second half, which means that the first half was a bit slow-paced as the groundwork got laid out for the various denouements of the second half.

The characters were not fleshed out enough in that first half although the dialogue sparkled with a brilliant mixture of wry observation and acid humour.

Michael Hurst as William gave a punchy performance as he tried to manipulate every one of the family members as well as friends and associates.

Catherine Wilkin as Nieve provided a strong character and the mother/son/daughter-in- law taunts and observations will resonate with anyone experienced in those relationships.

Theresa Healey’s Jennifer was a foil to both her husband and mother-in-law, with a nice mixture of the calm and frenetic.

Tom Stitchbury provided a clever take on the Xbox-focused son Ross while Peter Hayden as the retired lawyer, Tom, as a sort of classical Greek fat,e gave one of the most consistent performances of the evening.

Ruth seemed to be an unresolved character and Brooke Williams was not able to rescue the role although she got a lot of laughs.

The set by Tracey Collins with its sloping, angular shapes was something of a metaphor for the ups and downs of financial and family life and allowed for the many different scenes and action within scenes.

The Trees Beneath the Lake is a clever, thoughtful and entertaining play but it needs some sharp editing to make it a dramatically consistent work.