Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. Paradox Theatre directed by Ian Carcary at Currong Theatre. May 21-June 6, 1998, Wednesdays to Saturdays
I think there are three ways that Guards! Guards! can be played. As a broad comedy with lots of slapstick timing, in an English tradition which goes right back to Henry IV. Or it could be a biting satire about political power. It could also be done in the whimsy tradition.
Unfortunately Carcary seems to me unsure about which way to do it. Errol the Swamp Dragon is tickled under the chin continuously, but the light flights of fantasy are not played consistently. The Thieves Guild and the Watch have elements of comedy, but the pacing is never quite up to the mark. The Patrician, on the other hand, makes a final speech about how good people are only good at getting rid of bad people, but only bad people know how to run a country. This is an expose of dictatorship ("It isn't that good people say yes to bad people; it's that they don't say no"). It was played so understated and seemed so unassailable that I'm sure I heard it said in Indonesia this week.
As usual for Paradox, the costumes, sound and lighting effects are excellent, especially for such a small theatre. Diction was clear and the storyline - twisted as Pratchett's mind can be - is easily followed. Among Pratchett fans (there was obviously one group in Friday's audience) the jokes, with which we are all familiar from Monty Python days, got their laughs. But for me the momentum was lost too often, though it seemed to come together a bit better in the second half. The non-sequiturs and double takes which are Pratchett's hallmarks just weren't played up enough, and the audience responded spasmodically rather than with the flow of delight which I expected.
So which is it to be: rough comedy, hard-hitting politics or gentle fantasy? Maybe in the final weeks of the run, this production will settle in and take us away with the fairies - or rather the dragons.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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