SmackBang Theatre Company have launched their residency of The Auckland Performing Arts Centre (TAPAC) with an epic yarn scripted by Ken Duncum eleven years ago, about the men who survived 119 days adrift on the Pacific Ocean in the capsized trimaran Rose-Noelle, back in 1989.

TAPAC’s versatile auditorium is arranged in traverse, with a long black catwalk-style stage that angles inward at one end to evoke a ship’s bow. Toward the stern a double bed with an old blanket, fat pillows and a wooden headboard is the main setting for the real-time action which centres on the relationship between Jim (Phil Peleton), the play’s narrator, and his best friend Rick (Matt Hudson), who had beaten cancer before setting out on the ill-fated voyage but has suffered a serious relapse some years later.

Helping Rick’s wife Heather (not seen in the play) nurse Rick in his final months, Jim’s take on it all gives us more than an impressive against-all-odds adventure yarn. With Rick’s relative pragmatism, captain John Glennie’s devil-may-care philosophy and fourth crew member Phil Hoffman’s wholly transformative journey, the story’s layers include existentialism, human spirit, relationships, purpose and priorities. 

Events aboard the upended vessel itself are played in flashback throughout the two acts. Duncum’s script, presumably based on James (Jim) Nalepka’s novel given his narration, is peppered with insightful levities, nicely balancing the earnest reality the characters are faced with so it’s not totally bogged down in tragedy. It is reasonable to figure no-one could pull through such an ordeal without a sense of humour.

Director Charlie Unwin has assembled a most worthy quartet of actors to portray four highly engaging, distinct characters: Peleton’s Jim is the conscientious socialist to Hudson’s churlish bossy overachiever Rick. He in turn locks horns with the boat’s gruffly authoritative captain John Glennie, played to salty perfection by Phil Vaughan. 

And last but not least, Will Wallace’s affable would-be loafer Phil Hoffman appears to undergo the greatest transformation – from depressed defeatist to vital crewmember in one brief near-death experience. These brief summaries don’t really do each man’s complex character justice as we get to know them fairly intimately in the course of the story.

The overall design is kept quite minimal. Neither Bronwyn Bent’s set, Michael Craven’s lights nor Chanel Simpson’s sound offer anything flamboyant or fancy to create an authentic scene. While quite possibly due to resource limitations, the stark production is effective in generating the sense of isolation the crew must have felt and that we can barely imagine, if at all. 

The one scene I thought could be ramped up for stronger effect is the actual capsizing of the boat. As is it lacks the desperate chaotic tension that again most of us can only imagine. Aside from this, the levels are well pitched, although one patron reckoned they ought to lose the interval in order to offer us a more direct visceral experience of their harrowing trial. I can see how this could be effective in one artistic sense however it’s nice to get a chance for a wee rest and another drink; an opportunity to be grateful for such luxuries we might usually take for granted.

It’s also interesting and surprising to note, without giving too much away, that the second act is actually more fun than the first. Once the men resolve their worst problems – food, water and heating – the catastrophe becomes more of an adventure. More than once it is remarked that there is nowhere they’d rather be. 

Exploring aspects of the male psyche under extreme pressure, Flipside is a fantastic New Zealand play, to quote Mr Unwin. There is material that women may contemplate to better understand the hairier sex. It’s also a means for us blokes to understand ourselves a bit more.

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