Do Not Go Gentle was written in 2006 and has won several notable Australian playwriting awards. The work is titled after Dylan Thomas’ poem Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, an appeal for a dying father to face his mortality with defiance rather than acceptance. A recitation from the poem is an inevitable part of the script.

Directed by Heather Fairbairn, with assistant director Kate Wilson, it draws parallels between the featureless, shifting physical landscape of Antarctica and the interior landscape of a mind and memory affected by ageing and dementia.

Queensland Theatre Company’s Do Not Go Gentle. Photo © Stephen Henry

The central character considers himself to be Captain Robert Falcon Scott, leader of the 1911 expedition to the South Pole, of which there were no survivors.

But this Scott is not an explorer; he is a man in an aged care facility, dreaming himself and his fellow residents into an age of heroes. In the isolation of the facility and their fraying memories, the others are warmed by indignation, dogged by grief, or cheerfully embracing the next stage of life and reflecting with satisfaction on their lives.

At its core, Do Not Go Gentle asks the audience to consider how we crave and create connections and meaning through our relationships, regrets, dreams and desires.

Public discourse and awareness of dementia have evolved considerably in the past 20 years, leaving the play’s content feeling restrained or dated at times, particularly in its brief allusion to voluntary assisted dying.
The framing of the characters in aged care against the expedition to the South Pole feels flimsy, and the transitions between contexts clunk into place despite the best efforts of cast and creatives. The characters’ movement varies from shuffling, falls and frailty to strong, steadfast trudging through a conjured snowscape. This is supported by intimacy coordinator Michelle Miall, movement director Jo Loth and fight choreographer NJ Price.

Marilyn Richardson (left) and William Zappa in Queensland Theatre Company’s Do Not Go Gentle. Photo © Stephen Henry

Set and costume design by Simone Romaniuk evokes the desolate isolation of Antarctica and the blandly cosy interior of an aged care facility. Dual staircases and a balcony are underutilised in the staging, but mirrored walls beneath them open, close and unfold so that reflections warp and change. Sheer white fabric hung from metal masts is raised and lowered to become a snowy landscape, the sails of a ship, the peaks of a mountain or a tent lit warmly from within.

Lighting design by David Walters throws shifting shadows across the set, volleys the audience’s focus between characters during overlapping monologues, and casts reflections that suggest ice and snow under sunlight.

Sound design by Julian Starr creates the howling, whistling wind, while original orchestral compositions by Alan John add to the cinematic scale of the journey and largely summon its emotional resonance.

It is refreshing to see a stage dominated by actors over 50, and the Queensland cast of Do Not Go Gentle boasts an impressive combined collective CV. With decades of skill and expertise shaping their storytelling, many are still at the height of their powers.

William Zappa in Queensland Theatre Company’s Do Not Go Gentle. Photo © Stephen Henry

William Zappa is the emotional rudder of this production as Scott, delivering an unwavering performance that shifts seamlessly from impassioned expedition leader to distressed old man. Andrew Buchanan spends perhaps the least time on stage, but his brief appearances are charged with emotional intensity.

Marilyn Richardson is Maria, a disoriented woman who drifts past the other characters without forming part of the core group. After a long career in opera, 89-year-old Richardson made her theatrical debut in the 2023 production of Do Not Go Gentle by Sydney Theatre Company and she reprises the role here.

Bruce Spence embodies different kinds of pain as a man dogged by grief as well as the physical pain of an ageing body. Jennifer Flowers plays the affable and increasingly uninhibited woman who is Scott’s right-hand companion on the expedition and his romantic interest in aged care.

Christen O’Leary brings her singular excellence to the stage as a middle-aged woman with early-onset dementia, while Steven Grives’ gruff and embittered character reflects on a lifetime warmed by a sense of righteousness and standing up for what is right.

Finely honed performances and a stirring score squeeze bursts of deep emotion from this dense work about looking toward, or looking forward to, the end of our lives.

Do Not Go Gentle plays at the Bille Brown Theatre until 30 August.