It
shouldn’t come as any surprise to find that someone who has taken forty
years to come home has had some more pressing reason for staying away
than not having found the time. ‘The Seed’,
playing at B Sharp, Belvoir presents such a scenario.
The story of the
prodigal’s return is of biblical origin but, in the hands of this
accomplished writer, Kate Mulvany, it presents a very controlled and confronting dramatic plot. Its presentation and development in the hands of director, Iain Sinclair, make for a particularly entertaining and gripping piece of theatre. The intimate space of Downstairs Belvoir gives the play a claustrophobic intimacy that serves it well and Sinclair’s inventive use of every corner of the space, accented with well orchestrated lighting by Matt Cox, unfolds a cat and mouse pursuit between the players.
Mulvaney, in her notes, protests that the ‘The Seed’
is not about victims, not about blame. While it may not be about the
victims of war it is certainly about victims, how they are duped and
set up and how they are caught. The set design, by Micka Agosta, is
one of modest domestic comfort juxtaposed with cartons ill disguised
under lace all set against a strangely sylvan backdrop that invokes a
story within a story. Mulvaney plays daughter and
granddaughter, Kate, presenting a commentary through a past remembered
that vividly conjures an imagery of entrapment and secret bonds of pain.
Mulvaney undoubtedly
knows how to handle language however it is her use of it in creating
divides rather than bridging them that demonstrates a mastery. There is
woven into the dialogue a recurrent Irish idiosyncrasy. In the hands or
on the lips of Martin Vaughan as the patriarch, Brian, it teeters deliciously between playful jest and dangerous threat. By all accounts this
is a biographical piece and as such presents certain constraints in
both the telling and the acting. Gregory Peck was fond of telling the
story of Harper Lee tearfully watching his performance on the set of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.
Peck assumed the tears were prompted by his sympathetic portrayal of
her father, Atticus until she confessed that it was his paunch that
triggered her reflective emotion. Autobiographical works often set off
unexpected triggers for their authors. The
fact that the author in this case chose to play a character that is at
best ‘only just one remove (sic) from Kate’s actual life’ probably
compounds issues that work against the dramatic pulse. The result is
that the ‘mask’ of the playwright/actress seemed at times too fixed and
suggested a level of cognition in the character that belied the text.
Whether the events are indeed autobiographical or simply inspired of a life in the living is not of concern. ‘The Seed’
springs from a past remembered that Pinter described as a foreign
country. The playwright needs therefore to manage its sequence and its
staging. The
writing is tight and skilful with only the barest deferment to
polemics. It leaves the work to engage the audience in a reluctant face
down with mythology, self-deception and lies. Only once does Mulvaney
appear to have given way to a personal catharsis. As a result the
theme, so painstakingly explored, momentarily slips and the outburst of
pain in her deprived maternity, tragic though it is, appeared
gratuitous in the context.
Danny Adcock,
in the role of the prodigal returned, gave an outstanding portrayal of
one reluctant to wake the spirits of the past and shoulder a burden
that becomes weightier as the play progresses. When he finally strips
away the fiction and forces us to witness the gremlins of his past it’s
a frightening moment of mayhem. A
recurrent topic for art in all its aspects in this country is searching
out the Australian ‘voice’. Often in the past people have felt the need
to leave home to find an unconvincing echo of it abroad.
Here Mulvaney successfully invites us
home to Ireland to witness an uncanny reflection of an aspect of our
persona. It’s not the whole picture; it makes no claim to be. It is
however a beautifully crafted tile that will sit handsomely in the
mosaic that is Australian which, perforce, will ever be a work in
progress.
Mimmam Productions in association with B Sharp presents THE SEED
by Kate Mulvany
VENUE:
Belvoir St, Downstairs Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills
DATES:
Saturday July 21 – Sunday August 12
TIMES:
Tues 7pm, Wed-Sat 8.15pm, Sun 5.15pm
TICKETS:
$29/$23 (Preview $20, Cheap Tues Pay-what-you-can min $10)
BOOKINGS:
9699 3444 or www.belvoir.com.au
I thought the narrator was deliberately framed as the creator of the story unfolding ... to remind us that this story too is not to be taken at face value. For this reason Mulvany's "cognition" augmented rather than "belied" the text for me.
New drama rarely works on such a rich literary level. I feel it is being criticised for what is actually a great strength. We are too quick to punish intellectual and poetic ambition.
Avenue Q to open in MelbourneFrom Broadway to the West End, and the West End to Melbourne…the wait
is over and AVENUE Q fans can rejoice that the Tony Award Best Musical
winner will finally be enjoyed in Australia.
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