If you’re thinking this new work from the prolific Thomas Sainsbury is a reworking of Little House on the Prairie, you’ve obviously Googling too hard and not paying enough attention to the local theatre scene.

This is tight psychological thriller about familial betrayal and generational misunderstanding is far from pure in its approach to the everyday.

Bill Wilder (Bruce Phillips) is an executive of means, heading towards retirement and looking to get his story out to the world. He hires biographer Clive Whitakker (Harry MacNaughton) to follow him for a few weeks, for a paltry $1000 per chapter, to write what he’s told and get an insight into family life. 

Wilder’s was a life hard-fought in boardrooms, with plenty of whisky downed and women seduced during his considerable career. Bi-sexual, urbane Art (Todd Emerson) and feisty, frustrated Elizabeth (Fern Sutherland) are still living out of their father’s pocket and it seems a convenient set up for all, especially since they are looked after so well by housekeeper/driver Hodge (Yvette Parsons).

As with any a great thriller, none of these characters are quite as they seem, some more so than others, and some excellent twists become apparent in this deceit-filled, whisky-soaked tale. To say too much here would spoil Sainsbury’s beautifully crafted set-up, but by the end of the play we have a character dead, two almost married and someone outed as a serial killer.

The script rattles along concisely and swiftly from the confident, well-rehearsed performances of the cast, carried with vigour by snappy technical cueing that manages to smooth out the episodic nature of the through-line and create some naturally striking moments. The set is unfussy and functional to the few locales within the Wilder family estate, where the action stays for the duration. Costuming is all simple contemporary ease with an eye for the stylish.

Bruce Phillips seems to relish the role of the patriarch and shows his great versatility and timing in finding the many sides to Bill Wilder. His embodiment of the character is involving, relatable and well thought through. Phillips has proven himself many times over his career as one of the most reliable, committed performers in the country and Sainsbury rewards him with a role of depth, range and colour.

Harry McNaughton invests mild-mannered tight-lipped Clive with an almost childlike inquisitiveness for his subject that he manages to shift subtly and make fully believable in many of the more dangerous moments. He is on stage for the majority of the play and we observe the family from his point of view for much of it, so when other sides to his character are revealed later on, it comes as a surprise, albeit a good one. Here he reminds me of a young Anthony Perkins, which is apt, given the material.

Yvette Parsons’ Hodge almost falls into the comic relief of the work with her malapropisms, but the character takes on so much of the weight of the back-story that Parsons finds much breadth and an underlying sense of sorrow. The help is never an easy role in this sort of thriller, since most fall into the ‘the butler did it’ cliché, but here we are presented with an older wiser character who vents her frustration with a throw-away air of glum irony.

Todd Emerson is all laconic, sly, doe-eyed posturing, while downing gallons of whiskey and finding much interest in the sexual sub-text of Art Wilder. Fern Sutherland’s sexy, acerbic observation of Elizabeth is icy-cold controlled manipulation and sleek, cunningly poised, precisely-timed movement.

This new work by Sainsbury crackles with great snappy witty dialogue, from interesting, deeply-flawed characters and captures a very real sense of danger in the process. My only real criticism would be the apparent anachronisms in the dialogue that remove it from a particular era (do people still use the word “washerwoman” these days?).

At times the work is reminiscent of a great early Brian de Palma film, or even the likes of Ira Levin’s unpredictable Death Trap; at others it uses its own very Kiwi voice to flavour a colourful world of local nouveau-riche in a series of twists that would even make Hitchcock’s brain work overtime.

Well worth catching if you are looking for an excellent cracking thriller in the classic style with a particularly local voice. I really hope this production and script see a life beyond this all-too-short Auckland season.
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