The first thing you notice is the smell. Before you enter the space and see the stumped, suspended pine trees, you can smell them. It smells like Christmas.Though there's not much festive cheer in Angus Cerini's short, sharp, coruscating one act, one actor rapturous rant, Resplendence.
The set is not purpose built for this production, it is inherited from the current Old Fitz main stage show, The Shadow Box, but it works as a visual metaphor for rootlessness and emasculation.
The play opens with a man emerging onto the stage hunched and apprehensive; figure, face and fingers distorted in distress. In his right palm, a mouse-trap.
He sets the trap on the floor, in hope, perhaps of catching the rat sacking his supplies. He remonstrates his cupboard and fridge for being Mother Hubbard like – empty, devoid, barren.
What follows is forty minutes of conversing and convulsions as the man suffers and retaliates against a barrage of anger and frustration, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, the stones and piercings most painful, apparently, pertaining to his failure to help a female in distress.
This is his personal anguish, but there are broader issues causing his rage. Uncaring capitalism and consumerism run rampant creating an alienating chaos within the character.
The word resplendence means to shine brightly and certainly the writing flashes brilliantly. The script won the Victorian Premier's Award a couple of years ago.
The performance by James O'Connell also shines brightly. There's an inner majestic beauty to his emotional erosion.
Director Nathan Lovejoy's production of Resplendence is a welcome revision of Cerini's earlier work, especially in the light of his latest work, The Bleeding Tree, having won the $60,000 David Williamson Prize for excellence in writing for Australian theatre at this year's Australian Writers' Guild 49th Annual AWGIE Awards.
For those who missed Griffin Theatre's superb production last year, a remount has been announced as part of Sydney Theatre Company's 2017 programme.
In the meantime catch Resplendence and prime yourself.
Red Line Productions present
RESPLENDENCE
by Angus Cerini
Directed by Nathan Lovejoy
Venue: Old Fitzroy Theatre | 129 Dowling Street, Woolloomooloo NSW
Dates: 29 November - 10 December 2016
Tickets: $25
Bookings: www.redlineproductions.com.au/resplendence
