Sarah Kendall: A Day In October

Assembly George Square till Aug 31 (not 17)

***** (5 stars)

Newcastle, Australia was a tough place to grow up in 1990, as heavy industries closed down and unemployment hit hard. School could be a harsh environment too, as the bullied George Peach (“shaped like a peach, smelled like a prawn”) discovered on a daily basis. But when he died for several seconds after a diving accident, his resuscitation changed the playground dynamic quite remarkably. That’s the story Sarah Kendall tells here, spurred on by the guilt she has always felt over her part in George’s near-demise. As the show unspools, it’s like watching a particularly good coming-of-age movie: there’s complete hush for moments of dramatic tension, roars of laughter as almost every sentence offers a springboard to a joke, or two, or three. Kendall’s eye for teenage detail and small-town atmosphere is brilliant, but her complete understanding of the power of storytelling is even better. Her tale is funny, tender and has a finale that absolutely knocked the wind out of my sails.

Alan Morrison