One Scientific Mystery, or Why Did The Aborigines Eat Captain Cook? is almost as bizarre and baffling as its name; a journey without any real destination. But, since in both philosophy and experience, the journey is, arguably, the most edifying part, Victoria Haralabidou’s debut play is, at once, mystifying and fascinating. At its centre is a famous and eccentric song, by Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky; (a singer, poet and actor, who seems to have had a disproportionately significant influence on Russian culture per se). It goes a little something like this:-Why did the Aborigines eat captain Cook?
It’s unclear and the science is mute.
The answer is simple, that’s the way I see it:
They were just hungry.
Ah, yes. The perils of vodka.
Antoinette Barbouttis puts us in a dark place. (And I do mean dark. There’s no designated lighting designer or operator and, ‘though VHS Productions gets away with it, especially in the up-close and personal atmosphere of the TAP Gallery Theatre, at times it shows and proves something of a dubious compromise). Well, a dingy one.
Haralabidou emerges from an offstage bedroom. As Doosia, she appears tousled, one surmises from very recent sexual intimacies. Suddenly, Rhys (Aaron Jeffery) enters, surprising her and she him. They’re both suspicious; on edge; defensive. Her first impulse is to leave, but one senses she has nowhere else to go. His first impulse is to tell her to leave, but one senses he could use the company. And they're both intrigued.
Rhys knows his flatmate's habits all too well, so takes Doosia to be a prostitute, left to fend for herself after Ben (Dallas Bigelow, still unseen by us) has passed out, following one of his habitual benders. Ben is the apparently overindulged son of Rhys' father-in-law, for whom Rhys also works, selling Ugg boots to Russians, which surely has to be the equivalent of coals to Newcastle.
Unfortunately, there's much that's intended I just didn't get, until I read the programme notes. I may be obtuse. I didn't get, for example, that Doosia, at the beginning of the play, was contemplating suicide, as she stood starkers by the window, which has a weirdly distracting, liquid kaleidoscope of stars projected upon it. But I did get that, in just a few short hours, Rhys and Doosia arrive at some sort of understanding; a desperate, fatal attraction.
On the pretext of having been assaulted by Ben and insisting she won't leave till she gets her money (her fee rises from three-hundred to three-hundred-and-fifty dollars, plus a pair of Ugg boots, due to 'inflation'), Doosia avoids the ravages of the St. Petersburg night, at this hour no longer frequented by public transport, but low-lifes and predators.
Before long, the couple become each other's confessors. They laugh, argue, talk and tend to each other's wounds. Beneath playful, trivial conversation a bond is forming and strengthening; the kind born of circumstance, but very real and very intense. In their conflicted exchanges, we've a microcosm of every relationship; a concentrated extract, like a kind of Russian Vegemite, packed with vitamin E, for emotion. In this shadow play, three engineered puppets throw light onto every relationship and the dissonances that keep us emotionally distant, at odds and, very occasionally, simpatico. In this bleak, cold apartment, three tormented souls struggle to discover shared outlooks and experience.
Director Ian Sinclair has coaxed very naturalistic, compelling performances from the two main characters. The play waxes and wanes a little and my impression is, despite intensive workshopping and development to date, a few loose screws tightened would give the work even more potency.
As it is, it's intriguing and something of a lesson in Russian culture and humour.
VHS Productions presents
One Scientific Mystery Or Why Did The Aborigines Eat Captain Cook?
by Victoria Haralabidou
Directed by Iain Sinclair
Venue: Upstairs Theatre | TAP Gallery, 45 Burton St., Darlinghurst NSW
Dates: 9 – 14 April, 2013
Tickets: $35 – $25
Bookings: www.moshtix.com.au
