>>>>>MULTI-STORIED BUILDING
After
a war so destructive that the whole land is reduced to rubble, a group
of survivors emerge from the rubble, drawn by the sound of a child's
music box. Having lost everything - their homes, their memories, even
their names - they huddle round a fire and begin telling each other
stories because, as one of them says, "It's the only thing we can do."
Silly me, I'd have put foraging for food top of the list.
The third installment in Philip Ridley's trilogy of children's plays, BROKENVILLE was originally staged with Kosovan Albanian refugees, and explores the redemptive power of theatre and story-telling. It takes place against a post-apocalyptic landscape of crumbling buildings, ruined furniture, and walls riddled with what may or may not be bullet holes. Tan In In's set conveys this desolation well, although it could have been a little rougher - her fallen bricks form neat little piles, her rubble lies just so.
Fairy tales contain a raw, primal force, especially when one considers how much darker they actually are than we have come to think of them - the earliest versions of 'Little Red Riding Hood' had the girl being not just eaten but sexually violated by the wolf. The stories that unfold on stage are similarly elemental, tapping into the hopes and fears at the heart of human existence.
>>' ... the stories that unfold on stage are deeply elemental, tapping
into the hopes and fears at the heart of human existence.'
As
the characters tell their stories, we can see healing take place. Satchel
(David Tan) overcomes his fear of a bully by, like Jake in Ridley's 'Sparkleshark',
taking control of his story and seeking revenge within the narrative.
An old woman takes on the role of a witch in love with a young prince
(Caleb Goh), acting out her fantasies of rejuvenation and reclaimed energy.
There are disturbing bits along the way - Amber Simon's baby dies senselessly,
a mother and son are burnt to death in a fire they started, Kate Naughton
flirts energetically with her own father and brother.
Caleb Goh essentially plays a weird parody of himself, constantly flaunting his hair and six-pack at anyone who cares to look at them. He is very good, with a manic delight in his role and fine comic timing. Also good are Maureen McConnell as the old woman, obviously relishing her tough-as-old-boots persona, and Daren Tan as the half-blind Tattoo. Lily McConnell displays a strong stage presence despite being only ten, but can only do so much with a role that keeps her silent for most of the play.
The
cast as a whole work together competently, but lack the chemistry that
would enable them to make their stories truly take flight. More crucially,
they do not give one the sense that they have been through a trauma as
devastating as the text implies. Some of them claim to be injured but
show no physical signs of it, and no one really seems to mind having their
long-term memory obliterated. Director Brian Seward shapes each story
well, but appears to have paid less attention to the tellers of the tales
- they may have forgotten their personal histories, but still could have
been better defined as characters.
BROKENVILLE consists of stories - well-told, deeply moving, thought-provoking stories - but not much more. The larger plot (war, everything broken etc.) is lazily written and contributes nothing. There is no dramatic tension apart from that in the stories, and the ending is annoyingly pat. This is a shame as this production has all the right ingredients, but never adds up to more than the sum of its parts.