Mary Chase’s Harvey first charmed Broadway in 1944, winning the Pulitzer Prize and inspiring a beloved 1950 film starring James Stewart. Holden Street Theatres’ new staging, directed by Rosie Aust, revives that magic without dusting off its warmth. It proves that kindness and imagination are still quietly revolutionary.
At the centre is Peter Goers as Elwood P. Dowd, the man whose best friend is a six-foot invisible rabbit. Goers plays him as an enlightened eccentric. He sees things before they happen; the phone about to ring, the truth others are hiding and meets each encounter with serene curiosity.
His pub confessions spark confessions from others. Radical honesty becomes contagious. You sense Goers’ own radio persona in it: the lifelong choice to try to be pleasant rather than cynical. That humanity grounds the fantasy.
His sister, Veta Louise Simmons, portrayed with depth by Rebecca Kemp, drives the comedy’s social tension. At first, she’s all name-dropping and nerves, terrified of what people will think. By curtain fall, she learns that the only harm Harvey ever caused was the shame she projected onto him. Kemp charts that shift beautifully: vanity yielding to vulnerability.
The ensemble supports the satire with poise. Ron Hoenig’s Dr Chumley steals scenes with his Freudian pomposity, rubbing his belly and kicking up his feet when he finally collapses into a chair.
Antoinette Cirocco’s Nurse Kelly radiates warmth; her gentleness glows. Christopher Cordeaux’s Dr Lyman Sanderson is all clinical self-assurance.
Brian Wellington’s Judge Gaffney leans on a thick Southern accent, adding broad humour that occasionally jars with the subtler tones around him. Dora Stamos is a hoot as she tries to quell her sexual desires around brutish Leighton Vogt.
Aust’s direction chooses clarity over ambiguity: Harvey feels real. Lighting traces a pair of giant ears across the room as doors slam and characters react to the pooka’s mischief. Goers always leaves space for him: a look, a pause, a hand extended into thin air. It’s playful and oddly moving.
Visually, the production stays faithful to the 1940s. Sue Winston and Goers’ costumes, paired with Goers’ and Rosie Aust’s set design, deliver antique furniture and colourful rugs that blur home and sanatorium.
Rotating a mantelpiece painting – Elwood’s mother for home, Freud for hospital – signals the shift of scene. It’s a clever device, though it softens the contrast between Elwood’s warmth and institutional coldness.
Every character, the play reminds us, lives with a delusion: social status, science, romance, reason. Chase’s question still bites: which fantasy harms less? Belief in a rabbit, or belief that we understand the world?
Holden Street’s Harvey answers with grace. It’s not madness that threatens us, but meanness. And in Goers’ steady presence, kindness feels like the sanest act of all.
Harvey runs to 22 November at The Studio, Holden Street Theatres. 32 – 24 Holden Street Hindmarsh SA 5007.
Tickets are available here.
Website: https://www.holdenstreettheatres.com/harvey
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/holdenstreettheatres/
Images supplied.
