“I’ve probably been writing it for about three or four years – it’s probably four years, actually,” playwright Lucy Combe says of Recalibrate, adding that the ideas were floating around in her head well before that.

“Perhaps it was when I first become aware of gender theories during those heady ’90s days. It could have been when I lost my mother in 2009 or gave birth to my first child in 2010.”

Whatever the case, Combe says it has long been a story she wanted to tell based on questions around motherhood and ideas about what it is to be a “good mother” and a “good woman”.

Playwright Lucy Combe.

“The pressures that exist around that space and the way women are represented and break away from that sense that they need to be perfect – well, what happens next? That’s what informs the narrative.”

Presented by the South Australian Playwrights Theatre, of which Combe is the creative producer, Recalibrate is having its world premiere at The Lab at Light ADL as part of the 2023 Adelaide Fringe program. The play is directed by Elena Vereker and performed by a multi-generational cast comprising Jacqy Phillips, Kelly Vincent, Emma Beech and Katie O’Reilly.

Its story ­– which is set in Adelaide – revolves around women from three different generations. They include Carmel (Phillips), a disgruntled “philosopher of the third age”, and her daughters Mary (O’Reilly), a “good wife and mother” who makes a tragic error of judgment, and Simone (Beech), a hedonistic character who is lured back to Adelaide to pick up the pieces of her sister’s mistake. Tessa (Vincent) is a student of Carmel’s who becomes tangled up in the events that unfold.

Although Combe wrote Recalibrate, which was nominated for the 2022 Jill Blewett Playwright’s Award, all the actors have helped inform it through their lived experience.

“The actors have given a lot of their own gravitas to the work, like in tweaking things and reworking along the way,” she says.

“Kelly, who identifies as non-binary, and their experience of living in a wheelchair and with a disability, was really insightful with this. Writers are constantly cutting, nipping and tucking.”

Phillips also contributed her perspective: “Carmel’s an academic and she’s in her mid-70s, same as Jacqy, and she’s sort of run a women’s studies department for 40 years – got it up off the ground at a university and has become very jaded by university culture,” explains Combe.

Carmel is soon faced with a challenge that throws everything into question. She also feels her middle-aged daughters incessantly disappoint her, and at work and home she sees endless examples of ways in which feminism has failed.

As well as traversing feminist ideologies, Recalibrate travels across eras.

“There are flashbacks that go back to the early ’70s, when Carmel was a bit of a pioneer and living in a share-house of women, about what they had to do during the Whitlam years to actually create their own worlds,” says Combe.

Katie O’Reilly, Emma Beech and Jacqy Phillips during rehearsals for Recalibrate at The Lab. Photo: Abby Nicholls

Numerous dynamics emerge throughout Recalibrate: female and familial relationships, role reversals, hedonism, martyrdom, and conflicting ideas of feminism.

“A big part of it, I suppose, is women’s studies paired with feminist philosophy, so it’s influenced by overarching academic theories around women as well,” says Combe.

“It’s also really about the title, ‘recalibrate’, around having to really majorly rebuild after tragedy.

“It’s a very heightened play and goes for about an hour and 20 minutes. It takes us through this really intense journey.”

While writing Recalibrate, Combe was in ongoing conversation with fellow dramaturge Elena Vereker, who is now directing the play.

“The approach is very character-driven,” Combe says. “It’s very simple. It’s a very, very demanding show, but there’s light and shade as well.

“I go in and out of rehearsals, because I wear a producer hat as well, and Elena is right in there with them workshopping these nuanced roles.”

The creative vision adds a contemporary element to the production and complements the character work at the heart of the piece.

“We are using the Laboratory in the venue [Light ADL], which obviously lends itself to multimedia,” says Combe. “We have screens instead of the traditional set. The entire thing will be accompanied by a multimedia backdrop. So, it’s minimal… in terms of physical props. This set-up also references the online world and age of technology.”

As the creative producer at SAPT, Combe believes Recalibrate is a compelling example of what the company does best: nurturing new work. It has been workshopped extensively, with several staged readings.

That’s something we don’t see enough: women riddled with flaws

“We’ve worked with three generations of female creatives. I would like to think that makes for quite an engaging audience experience as well – a real theatrical experience.”

More than anything, though, she says the importance of this production lies in the opportunities it provides to female performers.

“It’s a powerful piece and I feel really pleased that there are roles like this for women,” says Combe.

“We should have interesting roles and nuanced roles about broad and flawed women. That’s something we don’t see enough: women riddled with flaws. That’s been really fun to write, and I hope audiences enjoy it.”

Recalibrate is at Light ADL at West Village from March 1 until March 5.

This story is part of a series of articles being produced with the support of Adelaide Fringe. Read more 2023 Adelaide Fringe stories and reviews on InReview here.