The Kid is a thrilling and exhilarating piece of theatre. A wild ride, a bold and daring work, substantial and revealing. Please see it, if you love good theatre. Words crackle and burn, actors ache with intensity and desire. For two hours I was entranced and delighted by the words of the great Michael Gow. The Kid was Gow's first play. Written in 1983, it is now receiving a revival performance at the Griffin Theatre Company's SBW Stables Theatre.

The play tells the story of two brothers and a sister who escape small country town inertia to chase a dream in Sydney. We begin with Donald, a shy and retiring type, sitting in a cafe. He is an opera buff and works in a book store. However, his quiet world is interrupted by the rambunctious group of Dean, Snake and Aspro. They shatter his peace and encourage him to take the trip to Sydney. The four characters are a disparate crew. Dean (Akos Armont) is suave and menacing, dangerous yet strangely seductive. Especially for the impressionable Donald (Eamon Farren). Snake (Emma Palmer) is trashy and coarse, loud and vivacious, whilst Aspro (Andrew Ryan) is simple and somewhat grotesque. We learn that Aspro has had an accident and the plan is to travel to Sydney and collect his compensation. At this point the play would seem to be maybe no more then a enjoyable and entertaining road trip story. However the arrival in Sydney sees many encounters with desperate and dangerous characters. We meet a father and daughter under the dangerous control of a religious cult, proclaiming the end of the earth. We also meet a hyper estate agent, a distressed and shattered lonely woman and a couple on the cusp of destruction. All the while, we see the change and metamorphosis of the four young people, who were hoping to escape the dead end nature of country Australia, but unfortunately encounter only pain and despair. Aspro's health worsens, whilst Snake becomes more responsible as their world starts to disintegrate. But it is the relationship between Dean and Donald that is the eye of this cyclonic play. Dean attracts people like bees to honey. His danger is alluring and Donald is desperate to please him. The byplay between the two characters is riveting and essential. And although every member of the cast is excellent, it is Armont and Farren who truly excel. Armont is perfect as the charismatic Dean, his movement and facial expressions ably capturing the spirit of the character, whilst Farren subtly portrays the seething vulnerability of his part. The words of Gow offer a drama of many layers, many levels. He has an innate knack for capturing conversation. Full of wit and sparkle, his words are real and convincing. He also has a remarkable gift for relaying the essence of place. Quintessentially Australian, without ever descending into cliche, you can just about smell the world he has written about. The Kid is exciting, fun, funny. But also moving, threatening, revealing and thoroughly engrossing. See it, now. While it lasts.