I hate
feeling like the bad guy but honestly, I can’t even begin to fathom why we
would bring a show over from Melbourne
for Perth Pride that’s as disappointing as Her Aching Heart. I mean, why pay
for another State’s dire theatre? Can’t we do our own? I guess not. Perth is not such an artistic backwater after-all methinks,
if this is what’s going on over in Melbourne.
Her Aching
Heart was written almost 20 years ago, and is an attempt at a fusion of
contemporary and period drama, staged as a parody (of pantomimic proportions)
of the latter. Why stage an English play steeped in middle-class stereotypes of
class and gender at a contemporary Australian Pride festival? I have no idea. I
suppose the point of the script is to take a satirical leftist dig at romantic
fiction, resplendent with all of its heaving bosoms and feigning swoons. A good
idea, but not executed at all well (at the script or production level); it
turning out merely ho hum in the end.
The plot is
simple enough. Two modern women, Harriet (Madeleine Swain) and Molly (Ruth
Katerelos), are separately reading the same weighted historical lesbian drama
about an aristocrat with giant (and yes, heaving) bosoms called Lady Harriet
and a Snow White-esque peasant girl named Molly. The drama comes to life, of
course, and we follow the rather Gothic adventures of Lady Harriet and Molly as
they discover their latent homosexuality and mutual attraction. Meanwhile,
Harriet and Molly begin their own tentative romance. Very near the end of the
play, modern-day Harriet confesses that she never finished the book because it
was too annoying (what with all that ridiculous moon waning and swooning going
on), and I found myself wondering why on earth, then, the audience had to be
subjected to a lengthy (and tedious) revue of the book’s goings-on if the main
protagonist couldn’t even get through it?
The thing
about farce is that if it isn’t done well, it’s cringe-worthy. Swain and
Katerelos did an admirable job playing four characters each, but much more
could have been made of this, a shortfall which ultimately comes down to the
direction. There were times where the audience was left to stare at a blank
stage while listening to one actress play two characters behind a curtain. This
is not creative directing. Watching an actor play two characters at once, when
done well (to wit, BSX’s recent The Caucasian Chalk Circle), is far more
entertaining than an empty stage.
Swain was
the saving grace of Her Aching Heart. Her performance skills are outstanding
and she truly grasped the concept of historical farce. Katerelos’ stronger
singing vocals were unfortunately not enough to save her sing-song line
delivery in the period pieces, which greatly detracted from the sense of what
she was saying.
Every
decent farce needs decent sound, and this was another weak point that could
have easily been corrected. The sound volume was way too low and so all of the
scenes that needed high energy (such as chase scenes), fell flat despite the
actors’ best efforts. The set was too sparse for the large space and the props,
although intentionally ridiculous, needed a spruce-up.
For the
most part, the 90% lesbian crowd received Her Aching Heart well. There wasn’t
the raucous laughter that farce should deliver, but there were enough laughs to
suggest that it was enjoyed. However, with lines like “He would have wed, bed,
and blood-shedded me”, I doubt there was anything that truly gave any
contemporary lesbian cause for reflection. I honestly don’t see what’s so
liberal about deconstructing romantic fiction in such an obvious way. Especially
since the sentimental modern-day Harriet/Molly storyline that bookends the play
(and which we’re supposed to take at face-value as a touching ‘will they, won’t
they?’ blossoming romance) smothers any bite the rest of the play might have
had in its attempt to satirise romantic fiction.
WishingWell Productions present Her Aching Heart
Venue: PICA, Perth Cultural Centre, James Street Northbridge Dates: Tuesday 7th - Saturday 11th of October Bookings: $25/20 - www.pica.org.au or 08 9228 6300
When watching "Her Aching Heart", I was laughing, but it seemed almost despite my better judgement. I wanted to like it so much, because it was part of the Pride Festival. I thought the performers were actually both considerably strong, but the script was appauling! I was thinking to myself "this must be a first attempt at writing my an amatuer." In the interval when I read my program to find that this was actually a published text with a history I was shocked out of my black lesbian boots.
I also saw "Butt Boy and Tigger", a gay oriented play from the eastern states which suffered the same problem of low quality concept but with good performers. "Duck, Duck, Goose!" however, a Perth made addition to the Pride theatre season, blows both of these visiting plays by actually having a point and a heart. I begin to wonder - Is there really a dearth of theatre in WA, or is that just an old label that has stuck despite a rapid advancement in quality?
Otello | Opera Australia
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I hate
feeling like the bad guy but honestly, I can’t even begin to fathom why we
would bring a show over from Melbourne
for Perth Pride that’s as disappointing as Her Aching Heart. I mean, why pay
for another State’s dire theatre? Can’t we do our own? I guess not. Perth is not such an artistic backwater after-all methinks,
if this is what’s going on over in Melbourne.
