Wharf 1 Theatre, Sydney
April 26, 2018

The word ‘congruent’ recurs throughout Still Point Turning, a new play written and directed by Priscilla Jackman about the life of transwoman Catherine McGregor. McGregor’s feelings of incongruity are represented by a Greek chorus – sometimes whisper-soft but insidious, other times clamouring for attention, noxious and belligerent. It is unbearable, stinging and relentless.

The drawcard of this play is the strong central performance of Heather Mitchell, who keeps things chugging along for a mostly captivating hour and a half. Deeply compelling as McGregor, Mitchell is careful to always let us see the hurt behind the intelligence and wit, her whooping laugh Rabelaisian. You also behold the tenacity of someone who’s led a life in the public eye, McGregor having risen to the rank of group captain in the RAAF, worked extensively as a political advisor and speechwriter, and found a national readership as a cricket commentator. Delightful company, Mitchell captures McGregor’s matey and combative use of language, but also takes full advantage of quieter moments of reflection, entirely convincing as someone alienated from the self, the body and the world. Her admission, with its mixture of vulnerability and defensiveness, that passing is of significant personal importance...