In Cold Light by Duncan Ley. Everyman Theatre directed by Duncan Driver at Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, February 4-7 at 8pm, matinee Saturday February 7 at 2pm. Bookings: 6298 0290.
This is an excellent new production of Ley's twist on how to get into heaven without lying. For The Q, In Cold Light is a strong beginning to its 2009 program a quality production of a locally written play which has stood the test of time since its original performance almost six years ago.
The story of how and why Father Christian Lamori (Jarrad West) finally reveals the truth could be thought of as a mystery play in the mediaeval tradition, while it is also a study of the process of interrogation highly relevant in our present-day world. The form of the play places it into a modern genre begun by Franz Kafka in his novel The Trial (1925), which was made into a film directed by Orson Wells (1962) and remade by David Hugh Jones with a script by Harold Pinter as recently as 1993.
The essence of this type of drama is that the character being interrogated seems to us watching not to be in a position to understand why they are accused. Though we begin by empathising with the apparent victim, we gradually find ourselves appreciating the interrogator's position. In Ley's version we even discover who The Inspector (played by the author) represents in the final scene, though in other playwrights' work, especially in absurdist plays such as Eugene Ionesco's The Lesson or Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, we are left at the end in the same limbo as the characters, still unable to fathom the truth.
Ley's Inspector plays as much with our assumptions about what we accept as truth as he does with Father Christian's beliefs. The script has been re-worked for a film version and for this stage version since its first appearance, making for greater depth of character and tighter drama, with an ending - reminiscent of Ionesco and Beckett - which is entirely logical yet with a surprisingly unexpected touch of humour.
The twists and turns of the interrogation keep our attention focussed throughout the 90 minutes of In Cold Light. It is good to see a local actor/writer working the drama with such confidence in this play which deserves a much longer season.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
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