Sydney Reviews

An acerbic comedy taking aim at the pretensions and dysfunctions of those who create theatre, Bad Jazz is a play that puts interesting ideas out there but ultimately has trouble getting much across. Nevertheless Robert Farquhar’s play is certainly never boring, with many darkly funny and potentially shocking scenes to keep you on your toes, as well as some metatheatrical devices that take this well beyond a typical backstage drama.

The story chiefly concerns three major characters, all involved in the rehearsal of a play. Natasha (Lisa Griffiths) is an insecure yet ambitious actress prepared to go to outrageous lengths to satisfy the wishes of infamous maverick director Gavin (Scott Witt), which led to a split up with her boyfriend and a new relationship with co-star Danny (Anthony Di Placido), an even more insecure, irresponsible and dim-witted actor. As Gavin rants and raves, goading his unlikable actors into deeper depths of neurotic obsession with their even more unpleasant roles, we also get sidelong peeks into these people’s discombobulated lives outside the rehearsal room. The view is far from rosy.

Petulant, narcissistic and convinced that art need never pander to its audience – or even require an audience at all – Gavin is clearly a cipher for enfant terrible directors everywhere. Indeed, were this by an Australian playwright you could easily be forgiven for assuming that it written with a specific individual in mind. The portrayal of struggling actors who are all too quick to compromise their seemingly minimal principles can be taken as either darkly funny or faintly tragic, a slightly barbed jibe or vicious satire.

It is this ambivalence of tone between satire and guignol that makes it a difficult play to approach. In these post-postmodern days it is often frowned upon to put too much emphasis on trying to determine what a writer intended to say in a piece of work (and indeed, a scene in the play even addresses this) and that the only thing of true importance is how we, the audience interpret the result: the author, we are told, is dead. This has a certain validity up to a point, but the confounding thing about Bad Jazz is that the very nature of its subject matter makes you unavoidably wonder just how deep Farquhar is really sinking the knife into the collective backs of pretentious directors and idiotic actors, or just having a rather vigorous prod. Is the notionally “in yer face” sex and profanity to be taken literally, or is this too a measure of parody, a critique of other plays of this ilk? It is difficult to try and figure out just how many layers of irony are at play here, and while this can be a stimulating experience for an audience, it also risks becoming distracting or tedious.

Were this a farce then perhaps all the idiotic and unpleasant behavior of this group of self-centred and self-destructive individuals might produce a certain amusement, but as it is the humour remains fairly black, and the characters remain largely unpalatable. But again… that may very well be the point. Whether you choose to interpret the play as a tongue-in-cheek or having its nails fully sharpened, the characters are scarcely appealing either way.

Incidentally, this is not a play for the easily offended, as one early walk-out clearly demonstrated. There’s nothing truly shocking, but if simulated sex acts and an abundance of bad language upsets you, then it’s probably worth being forewarned that this play is probably a contender for the record of using the greatest repetition of “the C-word” in a single scene, or possibly even any whole play. This is really just window-dressing; if anything should be disturbing it is the characters’ behaviour and the emotional violence that they do to themselves and each other in a frequently rather callous fashion.

Not that such things make for bad art, of course – you could hardly have a more unpleasant bunch of characters than your average Ibsen play. It is more that this story doesn’t particularly seem to go anywhere very interesting as opposed to heaping further degradations upon its disagreeable characters who remain largely clueless. That said, however, it is still a reasonably engaging play, and whether or not you find the “shocking” content particularly confronting it certainly holds your attention.

Without knowing exactly how much of this is specifically indicated by Farquhar’s script, director Anthony Skuse has done a fine job of placing this piece about theatre-making within a suitably metatheatrical framework, with characters’ entrances and exits often exposing not only the mechanics of the play but also underscoring the artifice of the rehearsal process itself. To this end unfortunately not all of the cast quite managed to play the different levels of nuance between their characters in the play they are rehearsing, their actual characters, and their “real” personae in the little Brechtian moments around the periphery of the scenes. Although generally solid, the cast has no particular standouts.

Bad Jazz is a play that may appeal most strongly to those in the industry itself yet the piece has something to offer general audiences as well, even if you can never quite tell if the playwright is actually attacking actors and directors quite as ferociously as he appears to be. Then again, perhaps trying to work that out is part of the experience.


Darlinghurst Theatre Company and square the circle present
BAD JAZZ
by Robert Farquhar

Director Anthony Skuse

Venue: Darlinghurst Theatre Company | 19 Greenknowe Avenue, Potts Point
Dates: 19 August - 12 September 2009
Times: Tuesdays – Saturdays 8pm, Sundays 5pm
Tickets: Adult $37, Concession $32
Bookings: (02) 8356 9987 or www.darlinghursttheatre.com