Daniel Vigilante
Sandra 1
Michael ItaliaTheatre: Mercury Fur
Theatre Review
@ Theatreworks, St. Kilda - Sept 2007
Lots of controversy has been associated with Philip Ridley’s play, and the mere thought of going to watch ‘controversy’ naturally has your cynical radar on high alert. And it’s perhaps fitting that the production company is called “Little Death”. But despite all the “grotesque” hype, the only hype that should emanate from this play should be one of sensation and laudability.
The play’s synopsis could be vaguely pinned down to this: a party is to take place where a ‘party piece’ (commodity) will serve the function of gratifying the appetites of a ‘party guest’ (client) by being subject to the most unspeakable horror—the torture, humiliation and sexual violence of child.
The play is sick. The narrative, absurd. It’s disturbing and nauseating, and I couldn’t help but feel like a sadist just watching the damn thing. But it’s also deeply moving and at times poignant. My senses where gripped for the entirety of the 2 hour performance, and I had to hold back urges to jump on stage and tell everybody to stop yelling and enlighten them to feel love. But it would be done in negligence, as it could be assumed that love—in its various forms—is the underlying theme in Ridley’s dystopic world.
Brothers Eliot (Luke Mullins) and Darren (Xavier Samuel)—who were both outstanding—say they love each other so much they could “burst into flames”, and the final scene was one of the most powerful I’ve ever witnessed. The other performances were equally enthralling, fittingly cast and dramatically executed, with a small extra mention to Aaron Orzech as a fantastic idiotic yob, and Gareth Ellis as Spinx, a godfather-like figure of forbidding authority.
To my viewing, selfish and unscrupulous indulgence appears as the main critique in this play, with drugs and human savagery playing their part in the spiralling decay towards an Orwellian apocalypse, with memory loss as a symbol of cultural annihilation. Let’s just hope theatre of this quality doesn’t end up as a victim.
@ Theatreworks, St. Kilda - Sept 2007
Lots of controversy has been associated with Philip Ridley’s play, and the mere thought of going to watch ‘controversy’ naturally has your cynical radar on high alert. And it’s perhaps fitting that the production company is called “Little Death”. But despite all the “grotesque” hype, the only hype that should emanate from this play should be one of sensation and laudability.
The play is sick. The narrative, absurd. It’s disturbing and nauseating, and I couldn’t help but feel like a sadist just watching the damn thing. But it’s also deeply moving and at times poignant. My senses where gripped for the entirety of the 2 hour performance, and I had to hold back urges to jump on stage and tell everybody to stop yelling and enlighten them to feel love. But it would be done in negligence, as it could be assumed that love—in its various forms—is the underlying theme in Ridley’s dystopic world.
Luke Mullins
