Theatre: Duck, Death and the Tulip

By Wolf Erlbruch

Barking Gecko Theatre Company

For the Perth Festival

Directed by John Sheedy

Designed by Alicia Clements and Chris More

Performed by Ella Hetherington and George Shevtsov

Subiaco Arts Centre

Until February 16

George Shetsov

How does a six-year-old stare Death in the face? A nine-year-old? An eleven-year-old?

The answer is: very differently. That seemed the case at the Subiaco Arts Centre at least, when kids of all those ages, along with their parents and grandparents, watched a wizened, wizardly (dare I say Gandalfian or Dumbledorian) George Shevtsov playing it in Barking Gecko’s Duck, Death and the Tulip.

Shevtsov is a superb actor. His long, etched face displays the whole range of emotion with economy and deadly accuracy, and his mature voice is a beautiful instrument.

Hetherington is clearly Sheedy’s first choice actor, and, as she showed in last year’s The Red Tree and This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, she is an exemplary performer for children. 

Link here to the complete review in The West Australian