|
Love and Money | Shaman Productions |
|
|
|
Written by Brett Casben
|
|
Thursday, 13 September 2007 |
 Beth Aubrey & Bryce Youngman. Photo - Kate Panzetta
It would be wrong to say that ‘Love and Money’ is the best of the
several drama’s written by Dennis Kelly, his work is so rich and
varied, but it has to be up there.
It is an omission on the part of
the production company, Shaman Productions, that the programme notes
fail to acknowledge the playwright as the image magician that Kelly is. Whether it is through the deployment of characters in
space and time or through the words they say Kelly’s craft is seen in
his imagery, tight, resonant and defined. He is a master craftsman.
Since ‘Brendan’s
Visit’, first produced by Etcetera Theatre in 1997 Kelly has had nine
plays staged and each has given a strong indication of an exceptional
developing talent.
Last week Sydney saw the New Theatre’s production
of ‘After the End’ (BAC London; LaTheatre Companyhmere 2004) for a
limited season. It exhibits some elements of contrivance and laboured
effects but his later offerings are very much sharper and more
incisive.
This production, staged at the small but very accommodating
Old Fitzroy Hotel Theatre, in the hands of director, Steven Rassios,
gives the play everything it deserves except the author’s
credits. The brilliance of the offering, however, makes the oversight
excusable since the play delivered on the playwright’s promise in
spades.
It opens with a covert love affair and the admission of ‘an
assisted death’; it ends where an earlier relationship began, in the
glorious and triumphant expectation of hope. It is a play of betrayal,
by the victim’s family, her husband and most especially the society
that has squandered the truth that alone might have set her free.
Kelly is concerned with ‘aliens’. Not the ones from the other side but
the misfits of society who still dare to hold on to a ‘certain hope’.
Science may have engendered the same profane belief of infallibility, as did
the clerics of religion. It has given to those who would wish for a
more wondrous future a sense of being out of step and sidelined.
It
is very topical with the recent highlight at the Sydney Writers
Festival of Richard Dawkins (Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public
Understanding of Science, Oxford University), the reasoning atheist.
There is also the ongoing controversy involving Guillermo Gonzalez
(Assoc Professor Iowa State University) over his Intelligent Design
(ID) stance in ‘The Privileged Planet’. And then there is the
phenomenon of ‘climate change’. Something that science can’t quite
bring itself to admit it can’t really explain.
If ever there was a
Gomorrah, it can be seen in today’s philosophy of ‘eat,
drink and be merry for tomorrow we surely die’.
In just such a place
we find Jess, played superbly by Angela Hattersley. She holds the
audience in the bitter cleft of agony and ecstasy. Jess, it seems
wanted more because that, after all, was what David wanted, wasn’t it?
Her husband, David, on the other hand certainly wanted more but it
was never going to be enough. In this production David is played by
Bryce Youngman. He exhibits all the reserve required to keep the
character’s options open but displays the necessary power to close them
off when required. David is a man of our time, selfish, self centred
and ultimately lost. He makes the Faustian contract without even
understanding the currency it is written in.
But Kelly is always
mindful that the pathway of persuasion is best travelled through fields
of laughter and he and the assembled cast under Rassios manage to make
the trek a riot even if it was dark.
There is a bitter sweet
conversation between Debbie, played with an innocent hope by Beth
Aubrey and Duncan, superbly portrayed by Christopher Stollery, still
holding onto a remnant of that hope but desperately wanting to take
something tangible home. It was a sheer delight in terms of pace and
timing. Stollery and Aubrey also take on the roles of Jess’ father and
Val, respectively.
Diana McLean as Beth’s mother and Sean Hall in the
dual role of Paul and the Doctor also give solid performances.
The
technical aspects of the staging were commendable. The set, designed by
Luke Ede who must also be given credit for costuming, was frosty and
impersonal as it was gradually filled with the detritus from the
performance. Lighting by Paul Walton played a pivotal role as it
followed the unravelling story around a very tight space. The area of
attention oscillated across the stage until it finally coalesced in the
central imagery of water.
When mixed with fire that water became the
‘God of Hell’ in Sam Shepherd’s play. Here, however, mixed with the
blood of the innocent commuter, it combines in an unequivocal evocation
of salvation.
It was a very fine cast in a very taught production of
a wonderful piece of writing.
Shaman Productions present the Australian premiere of
Love and Money
by Dennis Kelly
Venue: The Old Fitzroy Theatre – Cnr Cathedral & Dowling Sts, Woolloomooloo
Season: 6th Sept – 6th Oct 2007
Times: Tuesday – Saturday @ 8pm & Sunday @ 5pm
Tickets: $20 Concession, $28 Adult, $34 Beer, Laksa & Show
Special: Cheap Tuesdays - $16 Adult, $24 Beer Laksa & Show
Bookings: (02) 9294 4296 or www.oldfitzroy.com.au/trs
 Quote this review on your site | E-mail
Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.4 |
