Review: Things I Know to be True, Tower Theatre

You know that particular dread that settles in your stomach when a family function begins to implode? Andrew Bovell‘s Things I Know to be True at the Tower Theatre captures that suffocating feeling with precision in its early scenes, with a brilliantly banterous opening where the entire family trades barbs, exasperation, and moments of cruelty disguised as humour. The whole is tinged with the feeling that something darker is lurking beneath.

Bob (John McSpadyen) and Fran (Sue Brodie) find their carefully constructed family order disrupted when youngest daughter Rosie (Madison Leach) returns unexpectedly from Europe. Over the course of a year, old-fashioned values collide with modern hopes. On paper, it’s a classic family drama, but Bovell attempts something more ambitious: to explore how economic systems, societal norms, and forces beyond our control seep into our most intimate relationships.

The production thrives in its domestic, ensemble moments, under Rosanna Preston‘s direction. Brodie and McSpadyen deliver powerful performances as Fran and Bob, bringing weight to their roles as parents grappling with a world that gradually no longer makes sense to them. The chemistry between cast members feels lived-in and authentic, particularly in early scenes where laughter curdles into something more unsettling. Christine Bowmaker‘s costume design is excellent, subtly reinforcing character and circumstance, while the set perfectly captures the intimacy of a backyard garden.

Yet the production struggles with its own ambition. The writing packs physical and emotional abuse, infidelity, loss of financial security, independence, ambition, identity, trauma, crime, love, grief and fractured relationships into two hours. While families do contain multitudes, Things I Know to be True needs either considerably more time or considerably more restraint. By the fifth or sixth emotional revelation, it shifts from authentic family dysfunction into careful box-ticking of relatable crises. A slow burn opening gives way to a cascade of high-intensity scenes clustered at the end, leaving audiences emotionally drained rather than cathartically moved.

The monologues particularly suffer from this overload, feeling dramatically flat, and the ending, which mirrors the opening, feels tonally jarring compared to the severity of what precedes it, reminiscent of Grey’s Anatomy epilogues. For a play written in 2016, the writing feels more clichéd than its premise suggests, and despite being set around an Australian family, it carries little sense of that specificity.

The strongest moments come when the production leans into intimacy: the opening family gathering, which explores the personality gaps between Rosie and her siblings, Ben (Bailey Finch), Marc (David Lindley-Pilley) and Pip (Rachel Bothamley), creating genuine moments of tenderness and rupture. These scenes illustrate what the play does best: illuminate how family bonds shatter under systemic pressures that dwarf individual resistance. It’s profoundly moving, even as execution buckles under the weight of crises demanding our care. The more intense scenes struggle with volume control and occasionally veer towards melodrama. Each character’s struggle could sustain an entire play; by the end, it grows numbing.

There’s real artistry here, and the ensemble work is commendable. But ultimately, the production walks the very thin line between emotionally tiring and moving, and feels ambitious but not wholly successful. It captures the tragedy of becoming who we must and the bridge between generations, but the plethora of themes becomes its own burden.

Written by Andrew Bovell
Directed by Rosanna Preston
Set Design by Angelika Michitsch
Costume Design by Christine Bowmaker
Lighting Design by Rob Hebblethwaite
Sound Design by Colin Guthrie

Things I Know to be True plays at Tower Theatre until Saturday 31 January.