The dramatic version of Olga Tokarczuk’s 2009 Booker Prize nominated book Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead after a bumpy start, has finally arrived in full flight at Belvoir Street Theatre.
Adapted and directed by Belvoir’s Eamon Flack as a three-act play, it provides a showcase for 11 actors, all of whom are in top form for this beautifully realised production, as it tackles the task to adapt a dense and lengthy novel to the stage.
With the title taken loosely from a line in William Blake’s poem The Proverbs of Hell, we know that it deals with themes including mortality, constraints, the search for wisdom and deceit.
The central character Janina Duszejko (Pamela Rabe) is an educated middle-aged Polish woman who gets by looking after holiday homes in a village near the Czech border.
She lives alone with her two dogs, who are missing, has a strong interest in astrology and nature, and is helping her friend Dizzy (Daniel R Nixon) translate Blake’s poetry into Polish.
One day her neighbour Oddball (Arky Michaels, doubling with Bruce Spence) tells her that their neighbour Big Foot (Colin Moody) has been found dead, having choked on a bone from eating an animal that he has killed.
Janina hates hunting with a passion and she believes that the animals have killed Big Foot out of vengeance. Reaching out to the local police and others about her theory, she is ignored. And then the body count starts to mount, working through the cast in a diminishing manner.
The only respite for Janina is a chance meeting in the forest with Boros (Moody), an entomologist, who is on a mission to save an endangered species of beetles, to little avail.
As the body count grows and a church burns, Janina still holds to her belief that it is the animals seeking revenge on the hunters, until the third act comes crashing down.
Flack has done a good job pulling this adaptation out of the novel, building on its mystery and maintaining an empathy for Rabe’s character Janina as the narrator.
There are also plenty of holes in the narrative that are not explored or filled, such as Janina’s argument that if the animals that are doing the killing, which surely would lead to them being hunted by the humans out of revenge.
With such a large cast, who double the number of characters in their ensemble roles, he has also excelled in blocking the stage that helps to keep the flow of the narrative going.
Throughout the three hours Flack introduces changing moods and scenes redolent in magic, and the beauty of the changing of the seasons at times seem to behold a pagan air, while using every opportunity to extract the humour in the text and action.
As the central character Janina, Pamela Rabe is present in almost every scene, giving performances that are at times breathtaking in their range.
The role of Janina as an older woman gives Rabe the space to show a depth in her character, at the same time as being an unreliable narrator who ultimately has deceives herself, along with others.
That she is capable of a relationship of sorts with Boros shows that she is ultimately capable of forging something genuine.
For a cast this size it is rare that everyone is well matched on stage, but all of the other 10 actors take to their numerous roles with ease and engagement.
This has got to be one of the best sets (Romanie Harper) seen on any stage for a while, using a revolve, which the actors have taken to as second nature. Lighting (Morgan Moroney) and sound (Alyx Dennison) both compliment the production, as do costumes from Ella Butler.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is an edible feast for those who love theatre and is well worth the investment.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Upstairs Theatre – Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir Street, Surry Hills
Performance: Tuesday 14 April 2026
Season continues to 10 May 2026
Information and Bookings: www.belvoir.com.au
Images: Pamela Rabe and Nadie Kammallaweera in Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – photos by Brett Boardman | Pamela Rabe in Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – photos by Brett Boardman | Pamela Rabe and Daniel R Nixon in Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – photos by Brett Boardman | The Company of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – photos by Brett Boardman
Review: John Moyle