Salonika Bound by Tom Petsinis. Directed by David Myles. La Mama Courthouse, Melbourne.
Much of the power of great writing for the theatre comes from the juxtaposition of what is and what is not said – often associated with the vastly under-rated and consistently under-utilised skills of the Dramaturg. In Mr Petsinis’s case, there is an utterly compelling case for him to forge such a relationship because while his latest play Salonika Bound has flashes of brilliance, it is also constantly undermined by verbosity, repetition and simply too much tedious exposition. Equal parts memory play, reunion drama, chamber musical and history lesson, it also continues the disturbing trend of Melbourne playwrights borrowing observation from the vast human tragedy of the Holocaust, without honouring the complexity of its political, human or social context – either then, or more importantly in a contemporary theatrical context, now.
Achilles Yiangoulli and Argyris Argyropoulos’s songs are pretty, lyrical and melodic – but they do absolutely nothing to advance the plot, and Mr Myles’s direction is too frequently sabotaged by their placement which only serves to ensure that the performance grounds swiftly and completely to a halt. It is only when Laura Lattuada rediscovers her voice at the end of the performance, that the musical element makes sense, but it’s a small price to pay for having had to sit through the interminable musical interludes that also had everyone else on stage treading water for long periods of embarrassingly vacant time.
Antonios Baxevanidis’s performance, however, of the play’s dramatic highpoint – a monologue about the significance of the number tattooed on his arm – was immensely powerful, as was the scene where Mike McEvoy’s ‘James’, Bruce Kerr’s ‘Dimitri’ and Ms Lattuada’s ‘Helen’ debated the essence of the traditional value and cultural significance of a name. It was only these two scenes that resulted in any cultural illumination, and it is a great pity that Mr Petsinis didn’t explore this rich territory of identity more adventurously.
Marshall White’s set and video design was excellent – particularly the way the suggestion of the tiles on the floor were extended into the appearance of crucifixes on the wall.
No doubt the cast will settle into the rough and ready rhythm of the piece as the season progresses, but this is strictly theatre for the converted: those who desire to stare into the mirror of their own cultural imperatives. For the rest of us, it offers only a hint of illumination – even though there is something of a really fascinating idea struggling to get out from underneath simply too many well-intentioned words and far too many songs.
This review was commissioned and first published by Stage Whispers Magazine www.stagewhispers.com.au
Showing posts with label courthouse theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label courthouse theatre. Show all posts
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Theatre Review: Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto
Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The story of Emanuel Ringelblum by Neil Cole. Directed by Dominique Bongiovanni; Performed by Alex de la Rambljie, Liran Shachar, Phil Zachariah and Joseph Strou. An Eagle's Nest Theatre production at La Mama Courthouse, Melbourne until May 16.
The Holocaust has inspired many artists around the world to share their interpretations of the events that, collectively, define the single greatest crime against humanity in living memory. As an historical event, it has become increasingly scrutable, thanks largely to the tireless endeavours of publishers, authors (such as Primo Levi), filmmakers (Steven Spielberg), archivists and benefactors who are determined to document the extent of the horrors before the generation of survivors are lost to us forever. And while it is a cultural imperative that we record and share these experiences to enhance our understanding of how such systemic annihilation of our fellow human beings could happen, it is also equally imperative that we do the telling of them justice: something which this ambitious Eagle's Nest Theatre production struggles to achieve.
The story of Emanuel Ringelblum bears extraordinary witness to the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto, the single largest Jewish Ghetto in German-occupied Europe. Together with other members of the doomed community, he collected a wealth of information and documentation about such things as the effects of starvation and disease throughout the ghetto, as well as details about the revolutionary anarchists who would later form the foundation of the famous Warsaw Ghetto uprising – the single largest act of resistance and revolt by the Jews against the Germans during the Holocaust.
Director Ms Bongiovanni just doesn't seem to have been able to find a theatrically invigourating way to bring Mr Cole's didactic script to theatrical life. As Ringelblum, Mr de la Rambelje spends the night shuffling and generally fussing about with bits of paper and wandering upstage where these critical historical documents get filed away in some random order and location. The actors are also hindered by too much sitting and standing around, and too many unfulfilled comings and goings. Mr Stroud (who plays the young radical David), has the unenviable task of constantly arriving onstage to deliver increasingly desperate news about the escalation of human tragedy that was unfolding in the ghetto. That he was too often met by a lack of depth of reaction (other than cursory nods to how terrible it all was) made the night increasingly uncomfortable.
There also appeared to be some difficulty remembering lines, and the apprehensive and, at times inaudible cast, were not helped by the lack of atmosphere or even the fundamentals of design (there is no designer credited in the program). The over 25,000 individual pieces that made up Ringelblum's collection are represented by shambolic bits of paper and some second-hand books which only lends the production an unfortunate mood of a garage sale.
Mr Cole is to be acknowledged for bringing the story of Emanuel Ringelblum to a wider audience, but the overall feeling is that, while he obviously reveres his subject, he has not found the raw and honest connection with him and what he and his colleagues achieved, to make it a fascinating and illuminating insight. There's a great deal of idle and, ultimately, repetitive chat about Trotsky, anarchy and the sins of the Jewish Council (the Jews who formed what was essentially local government in the ghetto). But to come away from a night at the theatre that purports to tell the stories of the Warsaw Ghetto unmoved and underwhelmed, is to do the service of these memories a significant injustice. I hope it improves as the season progresses.
The Holocaust has inspired many artists around the world to share their interpretations of the events that, collectively, define the single greatest crime against humanity in living memory. As an historical event, it has become increasingly scrutable, thanks largely to the tireless endeavours of publishers, authors (such as Primo Levi), filmmakers (Steven Spielberg), archivists and benefactors who are determined to document the extent of the horrors before the generation of survivors are lost to us forever. And while it is a cultural imperative that we record and share these experiences to enhance our understanding of how such systemic annihilation of our fellow human beings could happen, it is also equally imperative that we do the telling of them justice: something which this ambitious Eagle's Nest Theatre production struggles to achieve.
The story of Emanuel Ringelblum bears extraordinary witness to the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto, the single largest Jewish Ghetto in German-occupied Europe. Together with other members of the doomed community, he collected a wealth of information and documentation about such things as the effects of starvation and disease throughout the ghetto, as well as details about the revolutionary anarchists who would later form the foundation of the famous Warsaw Ghetto uprising – the single largest act of resistance and revolt by the Jews against the Germans during the Holocaust.
Director Ms Bongiovanni just doesn't seem to have been able to find a theatrically invigourating way to bring Mr Cole's didactic script to theatrical life. As Ringelblum, Mr de la Rambelje spends the night shuffling and generally fussing about with bits of paper and wandering upstage where these critical historical documents get filed away in some random order and location. The actors are also hindered by too much sitting and standing around, and too many unfulfilled comings and goings. Mr Stroud (who plays the young radical David), has the unenviable task of constantly arriving onstage to deliver increasingly desperate news about the escalation of human tragedy that was unfolding in the ghetto. That he was too often met by a lack of depth of reaction (other than cursory nods to how terrible it all was) made the night increasingly uncomfortable.
There also appeared to be some difficulty remembering lines, and the apprehensive and, at times inaudible cast, were not helped by the lack of atmosphere or even the fundamentals of design (there is no designer credited in the program). The over 25,000 individual pieces that made up Ringelblum's collection are represented by shambolic bits of paper and some second-hand books which only lends the production an unfortunate mood of a garage sale.
Mr Cole is to be acknowledged for bringing the story of Emanuel Ringelblum to a wider audience, but the overall feeling is that, while he obviously reveres his subject, he has not found the raw and honest connection with him and what he and his colleagues achieved, to make it a fascinating and illuminating insight. There's a great deal of idle and, ultimately, repetitive chat about Trotsky, anarchy and the sins of the Jewish Council (the Jews who formed what was essentially local government in the ghetto). But to come away from a night at the theatre that purports to tell the stories of the Warsaw Ghetto unmoved and underwhelmed, is to do the service of these memories a significant injustice. I hope it improves as the season progresses.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)