Like a version. Phillip Kavanagh's Replay is a beguiling, intriguing and captivating version of the same events from different perspectives.
It begins with an incident, a dare between three youngsters, culminating in an action that requires manipulation and coercion to make the official version of the event palatable.
It is a neat and imaginative foreword to the form the narrative takes in examining memory, personal accounts, history. His story. Who's story? Their story.
Each of the men has his story, haunted by the ghosts of memory. In some ways, Replay is a ghost story, illustrative of how the past haunts the present, and what is necessary to exorcise the suffocating demons, to relinquish guilt, to unshackle shame, to move forward.
In the course of the play, two verbal acts of contrition seem to dispel the negatives, the simple, yet difficult, utterance of 'sorry' seem to salve and soothe and give absolution to grief, guilt, and confusion.
There is a terrific trio of talent on stage – Jack Finsterer, Alfie Gledhill and Anthony Gooley.
Each of them is required to “double”, whether it be taking on two different characters, or portraying the same character but in different versions. Each of them is splendid in their portrayals, with clearly defined depictions, delineated and detailed in observational nuance.
The aforementioned cries of contrition are particularly palpable in the performances of Finsterer and Gooley.
Just recently we've all turned back time. The end of daylight saving allowed us to “relive” an hour. Of course, most of us were asleep, maybe dreaming.
In dreams, time is fluid and flexible, unfixed. People from the past present themselves, impervious to real time, incongruous to reality.
In daydream, few of us would not have pondered “If you could replay your life, would you do it all again? What would you change?”
And by changing something – an action, an incident – how would that impact on the present, known reality?
And “known” by who, whose version of events.
Phillip Kavanagh's imaginative, intriguing and provocative play, Replay, could be the stuff of science fiction/fantasy, but in this production, under the delicate direction of Lee Lewis, it is the stuff of the very real act of living.
Griffin Theatre Company presents
REPLAY
by Phillip Kavanagh
Director Lee Lewis
Venue: SBW Stables Theatre | 10 Nimrod Street, Kings Cross NSW
Dates: 9 April – 7 May 2016
Tickets: $55 – $35
Bookings: 02 9361 3817 | www.griffintheatre.com.au
