Seacliff: The Demise of Ward 5 is a musical account of life in a New Zealand mental hospital in the lead up to the tragic fire in which 37 women lost their lives – the most destructive fire in our country’s history at the time. The show follows a fictionalised version of these patients, including young mother Grace Sutton (Aislinn Sederel) who has been accused of the murder of her daughter and joins the ward a few months before the fire. 

Writer/composer Renee Maurice has reportedly been working on the project for eleven years, both as an artistic exercise and as an attempt to remind New Zealanders of the tragic event, which is still little-known and has never been properly memorialised. This musical may perhaps have succeeded at its second goal – Maurice states that today (9 December 2017) a plaque is being put up in Dunedin in the women’s memory – but fails on an artistic level for a number of reasons. 

Theatre is, by its nature and at its best, a collaborative art form; here, however, Maurice seems to be a bit of a one-man-band, serving as writer, composer, director, producer and one of the play’s performers. Her skill levels in each of these vastly different roles vary wildly, and I come away from the performance feeling like Maurice has bitten off more than she can chew. For future projects, Maurice would benefit from finding a few more collaborators. 

Firstly, there is the music. Maurice has some talent as a composer, and the tunes here are all melodic, if often quite bland. There is not much of a sense of musical motif to support either theme or character here (almost all songs are standalone, with a few short reprises near the end) but some of them are memorable. The music works best when the full ensemble is utilised and can sing in full harmony, as in the standout acapella number ‘Land of the Living’; unfortunately, many of the songs in the second half are solos or duets which do not allow for this interesting full chorus harmony. 

These songs are well delivered by the cast, all of whom have tuneful voices. I would have liked the vocal timbre to lean more into either musical theatre belt or operatic heft, as the songs mostly all sat in a gentle ‘head voice’ mode that lacked some of the vocal colour, power and character I expect from musical theatre performances. An exception was Will King as Willem (a guard and Grace’s love interest) who displays a rich, expressive baritone throughout. 

The lyrics are functional, with a few surprises here and there – the Act One closer ‘Hush Little War’ is an interesting take on a well-trodden theme. The dialogue, however, is sorely lacking – it is expository and dripping with cliché. Characters spend a long time telling other characters things they already know, and it often appears that Maurice has just dumped information she has researched about Seacliff and period-specific mental illness treatments into the script, where they feel forced and unnatural. The delivery of this dialogue, which is often very stiff, does it no favours.

The actors clearly have some ability, as I notice that during their sung solos they are often expressive and convincing; however, the spoken scenes are almost universally flat, wooden and lifeless. The exception here is Lindsey Rusling as Agnes, whose vivacity and comedic timing gives her scenes a sorely needed energy boost. Maurice’s direction, which is lethargic and often static, seems to elicit this listlessness from her cast, which is even more apparent in the large Soundings Theatre space. The direction shows a general lack of creativity, from the uninspired set to the use of blackouts and black-clothed stagehands to transition between environments.

This particular performance was also beset by technical issues, from loud, distracting microphone feedback throughout to missed musical cues from the pre-recorded backing tracks (which have a tacky, synthetic quality to them) to lights suddenly dimming in the middle of a scene. Hopefully, these can be fixed for future performances; they seemed symptomatic of a short tech period. 

As the story itself winds to its conclusion, the show’s two and a half hour length makes itself felt; however, I still find the reveal of the fire itself abrupt and anti-climactic. In order for this show to feel satisfying, the narrative needs a sense of impending doom; a sense that these innocent women are sitting ducks. Rather than just telling us the women are locked in their rooms and the hospital is understaffed, we need to feel the tension, the confinement, the cramped conditions; otherwise, we feel no sense of the injustice that Maurice clearly wants to elicit. 

All in all, Seacliff will be appreciated by history buffs and those with a personal connection either to the fire, or to the cast and crew, but it is not narratively interesting enough to keep the attention of the regular theatregoer. Renee Maurice is clearly passionate about this subject matter, but I hope that in future she enlists the help of other theatremakers when creating a new project instead of shouldering the whole burden herself; she will have a better show for it. 

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