Why does Jasper choose the 14-year-old Charlie to help him? Charlie is deferential, extremely nervous, backs down if challenged and is not overly interested in sport. And, for goodness sake, he wears sandals! He is not quite a loner, as he does have a close friend in Vietnamese lad, and ardent cricket fan, Jeffrey Lu (Charles Wu), whose parents are not as clued in about the Australian vernacular as he is. Nevertheless, he, Jasper and Jeffrey are on the margins, not the dinkum Corriganites.
Charlie is a reader, observant and reflective and Jasper Jones is in fact, Charlie’s narrative. He is drawn unexpectedly into the cruelty and secrets of the little town of Corrigan as he journeys from a kindly innocence through bewilderment to a friendly self-assurance. There is no doubt that Corrigan is a stand-in for an insular Australia, still adhering to a rural heritage in 1965, and still obsessed with English sport, rejecting cultural differences and crushing in its response to perceived infringement of its waspish ethos.
There is no doubt that Jasper’s fear of vigilante-like repercussions if Laura’s body is found is justified as the townsmen brutalise the boy in an attempt to make him reveal where her corpse is hidden. Nor is there any doubt that the Vietnamese are resented in their new country when Mr Lu’s lovely rose garden is trampled and broken.
However, change is blowing in the wind. Charlie’s mother (Kate Box) leaves a life she finds oppressive, his quiet father (Steve Le Marquand) finds the courage to defend the Lus against the mob, Charlie demonstrates to the town that he is a talented cricketer and Jasper’s remorseful white grandfather (also Le Marquand) claims him as his own. Finally, the boys are delivered from their guilt in a surprising turn of events, triggered by Charlie’s first love, Laura’s sister Eliza (Matilda Ridgway) who has her own guilty secret.
This sometimes justifiably harsh parable about the awakening of Charlie, and a nation, to the wider context of the complicated world, has plenty of wit and fun to balance the darkness. The actors are all at home in their parts, with special praise to Tom Conway who as narrator, carries the play from start to finish. Also, congratulations must go to the creatives for a superb but economical set, centred around a gnarled and wondrous tree of knowledge and its tempting and ultimately redeeming peaches.
