UK Theatre Network

The Cock Tavern theatre’s production of A Stretch Of The Imagination, based around the popular stereotype of the Australian male, makes interesting viewing.

Monk O’ Neill lives very much alone in an old iron shack on One Tree Hill, in the bush. He is facing the physical deteriorations of old age, and is haunted by memories of his past relationships. Monk kills the time with obsessive daily routines, and by telling tales that are often hard to determine as the truth, or a stretch of his imagination. He introduces us to a bunch of lively characters such as biker Mort Lazarus, who died outside his shack from frost bite, to ex-lover Dora-Bella and her angry husband Merve. He’s persistently belligerent, and O’Neil seems to have alienated most of the people in his life and turned an angry back on society. He faces his loneliness and inevitable death with acceptance, but not before rewriting his tattered will and leaving it to the dispossessed of the land.

Despite being slightly too young to the play the character, Mark Little gives an interpretation of this anti-hero which has depth, and is often as moving and as it is funny. Monk is essentially not a likeable character, but nevertheless it is hard not to give empathy when he is dumped by this girlfriend Muriel, or even when he shoots his own dog because it is an extra mouth to feed. In contrast, Little is hilarious with his affectations at a posh dinner party, and his satire of the French during his visit to Paris.

Written in 1972 by Jack Hibberd, one of Australia’s most famous writers, A Stretch of the Imagination, is one of the classics of Aussie theatre. Culturally it is so important that in 2009, it was studied as a set text on the drama syllabus in Australia. However as a newcomer to his writing, the incoherent ramblings of this monodrama were in parts quite difficult to follow. The text which is often thematically clichéd, is partly a throw-back stylistically to absurdist writers like Becket, and is a mish-mash of prose and poetry. It hasn’t aged well and offers few surprises.

Mark Little has ably directed himself as Monk, and also created a rather nifty set representing his character’s lonely, ramshackle life. The Cock Tavern also provides the perfect venue for the intimacy of Monk’s revelations. 

A Stretch Of The Imagination runs until 17^th July. For more information call the box office on 08444 771 000 or visit www.cocktaverntheatre.com