The Twins by Sarah Butler, Ian Darling and Greg Fleet. Shark Island Institute and The ArtsLab Kangaroo Valley at Canberra Theatre Centre, Courtyard Studio, May 3 – 6, 2021
Reviewed by Frank McKone
May 3
Directors: Terry Serio and Sarah Butler
Producer: Mary Macrae
Designer – Sarah Butler; Lighting Designer – Morgan Moroney; Voice & Acting Coach – Terry Serio; Additional Accent Vocal Coach – Jillian O’Dowd; Production Assistant – Alisha Manning
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| Ian Darling and Greg Fleet in The Twins - Truer than Fiction Photo: Lisa Tomasetti |
Ian
Darling, “an award-winning documentary filmmaker, who returns to the
stage for the first time in 40 years”, and Greg Fleet “an award-winning
actor, comedian, playwright and author” are apparently preparing to
rehearse the roles they played together at school all those years ago –
the twin sons of Ægeon, who is a wealthy merchant from Syracuse, in
Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors; both of whom are known as Antipholus.
In Act I, the racist Duke of Ephesus demands:
“Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause
Why thou departedst from thy native home,
And for what cause thou camest to Ephesus.”
Ægeon,
explains the long and complicated story in which he adopts a pair of
twins from a poor family (each become known as Dromio) and how by
accidents at sea on his “prosperous voyages”, he and his wife, each with
one son and his attendant, become separated. So we end up with
Antipholus (and Dromio) of Syracuse, at the age of 18, going off to
search for their twins Antipholus (and Dromio). As we find out much
later, they are in Ephesus, where the Duke, though sympathetic, has just
jailed their father, after
“Five summers have I spent [searching] in furthest Greece,
Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia,
And, coasting homeward, came to Ephesus
Hopeless to find, yet loth to leave unsought.”
But,
in keeping with the Australian government, that’s the law, says the
Duke : “Which princes, would they, may not disannul.” I have to do this
to you: “Yet I will favour thee in what I can.” Refugees still
effectively held in Papua New Guinea and Australians trapped by Covid in
India will surely understand.
The Twins is an 80
minute journey of discovery about what actually happened to Ian and Greg
when they were separated after school. They never get around to
performing more than a few snippets of Shakespeare’s play – mainly bits
of their “father’s” speech. This becomes significant because both of
them seem to have been unduly influenced by their real fathers’
expectations and lifestyle.
Perhaps the most interesting issue
that divides them, as they argue about what they think they remember, is
that Ian comes from a wealthy family who buys his private education,
while Greg from a poor and dysfunctional family seems to have got to
Geelong Grammar on a scholarship. Ian, it seems, was the real
Antipholus, while Greg was really a Dromio.
I have in mind that Act II of The Twins
might be to work up a piece from the Shakespeare. Perhaps we could see
the two families, based upon Ægeon’s emphasis on his loving wife with a
strong sense of responsibility equal or more than his own, compared and
contrasted with the Dromios’ mother who, says Ægeon, was
“A meaner woman [who] was delivered
[in the same inn where his wife became
A joyful mother of two goodly sons]
Of such a burden, male twins, both alike.
Those, for their parents were exceeding poor,
I bought, and brought up to attend my sons.
In other words the “meaner” woman had no option but to sell her children.
This
story is relevant to Ian’s life because he says that he feels guilty
for being so wealthy. Has he, in real life, come to understand and live
up to the goodness of his Shakespearean father and mother? Antipholus
of Syracuse is certainly rather like the stockbroker Ian says he became,
but Shakespeare gives a different view of family life in Act II Scene I
in the house of Antipholus of Ephesus, where Dromio is treated in the
worst way as a slave; and bites back magnificently.
So, though
the stories of Ian Darling’s and Greg Fleet’s adult lives are
interesting, and their playing of themselves raises questions about the
nature of being an actor, I felt they could have written a play
incorporating what they have learned from playing Shakespeare with such a
strength of mutual connection at the age of 16.
They write in the program “We have coined the term ‘theatre verite’
to describe this piece because it is a play, first and foremost, but
the characters are real people and are also played by themselves.” I
have several times recently reviewed what I have termed “Personal Theatre”. John Bell’s One Man In His Time takes up the Shakespeare theme, of course, but I think Stop Girl by Sally Sara has been the most powerful, alongside My Urrwai by Ghenoa Gela and Red by Liz Lea.
The Twins
is given a structure, which raises social issues, making the play more
significant than two guys nattering about their lives. They begin and
end with stylised statements that “I am a man” and “I am a white man”,
implying that they recognise, for example, that they are not women and
not diverse. They also focus often on the question of being truthful
and trustworthy, because being an actor can mean hiding the truth, and
social prejudice can raise its head. That raised for me the question
that, having written this play and continuing to perform it, have they
not changed simply as a result of this experience, especially working
together after so many years apart? Maybe the script will have to keep
changing.
John Bell pointed out that you can only trust an actor to the extent that you know they are pretending.
So, though The Twins is not “great theatre”, it certainly can stimulate a lot of ideas.
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| Greg Fleet and Ian Darling in The Comedy of Errors Geelong Grammar 1978 |
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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