2005: A Girl in a Car with a Man by Rob Evans

A Girl in a Car with a Man by Rob Evans.  Directed by Lenore McGregor at The Street Theatre Studio, April 21 - May 7, 7.30 pm.

    This is an engrossing play which forces us to pay attention when we would rather constantly seek diversion.  Its form exactly suits its theme, while the direction, the acting style, costumes, set, lighting, sound and the use of multiple video screens faithfully match the form. 

Its impact is personal, rather like watching television, so its presentation in the Studio rather than on a larger stage was the right decision.  This production will transfer to the Old Fitzroy Theatre in Sydney May 19 to June 11 and was first presented by the English Stage Company in the studio style Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, London, in November 2004. Young Scottish writer, Rob Evans, began work on the play at the Interplay Young Writer's Festival in Townsville, 2003, and Lenore McGregor directed the first stage of its development at the Australian National Playwrights' Conference in February 2004.

    These credentials mean you should not miss the chance to see A Girl in a Car with a Man.  All five actors - Mary Rachel Brown (Paula), Peter Damien Hayes (David), John Leary (Policeman) and especially Henry Nixon (Alex) and Amanda Bishop (Stella) - create intense, surprising characters, each fascinating to watch in their own right.  And their performance skills are equalled in the writing and directing. 

    The concept of the play could have become a disjointed confusion.  All that holds the characters together is that they have all seen on television a security camera sequence of a young girl taking the hand of a man who takes her to a car and drives away.  Paula and the Policeman meet near where this event took place.  Stella and David meet accidentally in David's house in the north of the country.  Alex tells us the story of a night at a gay club near Arthur's Seat.  All fear for the girl in the car, and we, like them, must either divert our attention elsewhere or become obsessed with the horror of what may have happened to her.

    The implication is that the more we seek personal security, the more we isolate ourselves, the less we trust each other and the more insecure we feel.  This is the vicious circle of modern civilisation, displayed here with many a light touch to divert us, but with no easy resolution.  The truth is not easy to bear.

© Frank McKone, Canberra

2005: Requiem In Sanity by Peter Butz

 Requiem In Sanity by Peter Butz.  Maenad Theatre at Murranji Theatre, Hawker College.  From April 13, 8pm.

    This new "co-operative company dedicated to artists expressing themselves" has serious intentions, serious local actors, several with serious skills, and a serious though not original theme: that the world outside is mad enough for one escapee from the asylum on the hill to shoot herself, while her twin brother would prefer to return to the safety of the madhouse.

    Unfortunately the quality of theatrical imagination in the writing is patchy, the staging is pedestrian (literally as shadowy figures carry props on and off in clunky half-blackouts between scenes), and the sound track eclectic rather than clearly thematic.  Costumes were interesting.

    Despite these flaws, Maenad deserves encouragement.  Butz's script needs professional development to turn it from a concept into a properly focussed drama.  In its current form it tries to do too much, with a murderous devil and his fantasy mother which reminded me somehow of the Rocky Horror Show at one end, a clearly normal young secretary seduced by a cad and coming to a realistic understanding of her situation at the other, while the insane twins speak sanely about how the freedom they sought places them in jeopardy.  To tie all this together, Butz's plot becomes inevitably predictable, even melodramatic.

     I find it surprising that, though many of the Maenad company have stage experience and tertiary training, this production shows little understanding of theatrical style or form.  It is episodic without knowing how to be epic.  Bits seem naturalistic incomprehensibly mixed into expressionistic fantasy.  I apologise if this terminology is not your thing, but this company's serious intentions lead me to expect that they (after a century of development in Western theatre) should be more in control of dramatic style - which means that in the audience we wouldn't become conscious of this issue.  We would simply become engaged in the drama experience.

    So, messy but interesting, and hopefully the beginning of better work next time. 

© Frank McKone, Canberra