Dead gum leaves litter the stage and the air is thick with the sound of crows as a lone, barefoot figure shuffles among the milk-crates, cardboard boxes and bags, largely ignored by the audience – who file in, chat and take their seats – as she potters around the detritus, her smudged fingers twitching. Christie – the homeless protagonist of Australian playwright Daniel Keene’s one-woman play Mother at Belvoir St Theatre – is just another part of the landscape until the lights go down and with a shout the focus is all on her.

Noni Hazlehurst as Christie in Belvoir St Theatre’s Mother. Photo © Brett Boardman

While breathtakingly simple, the device immediately draws attention to the way we see – or don’t see – the more vulnerable members of our society. Beloved Australian actor and presenter Noni Hazlehurst gives a harrowing performance as Christie, who tells her story – one of poverty, alcoholism, abuse and love – in a series of scenes that lurch gently from one to another thanks to Matt Scholten’s careful direction (as well as Tom Willis’ sound design and Darius Kedros’ sensitive lighting). Keene wrote the play...