tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200658218238769688.post3455650462534788105..comments2024-01-20T16:46:43.636+11:00Comments on Kevin Jackson's Theatre Diary: Summer of the Seventeenth DollGeorge Khuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10220918958933755405noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200658218238769688.post-17896289812438274312011-11-09T23:45:39.837+11:002011-11-09T23:45:39.837+11:00Kevin,
Thank you so much for your evocation of th...Kevin, <br />Thank you so much for your evocation of the Jackson family past-<br />a world with such rich connections to the world of THE DOLL. The lyrical opening paragraphs of your review suggest a terrific short story or memoir in the making ; we read about the people who were the bricks and the mortar of your youth, and who also - to us - sound like they could be characters in a Lawler play ; reading of the parallels, we begin to understand why there is almost a sense of betrayal for you in the current Belvoir production. <br /> Like you , I felt puzzled by the design choices. But maybe I shouldn't have been ...we have seen in productions such as "Neighbourhood Watch" and "The Wild Duck" that there is a trend at Belvoir towards a kind of minimalism ; I found it particularly disappointing in "N.W.", as the wide open dark spaces between the places where people 'lived' cried out to be filled with some suggestion - not necessarily realistic - of inner city life. <br />For you the design choices in this "DOLL" took a severe toll on the possibility for enjoyment. I didn't have the same problem , because whatever 'difficulty' in the stage design, I was quickly swept up in a delight with the text. It was like meeting up with an old friend , and feeling some sort of wonder at how much more there IS to that friend than one had ever bothered to note. Act I whirled into gear, the stage became busier , and I thought: 'of course this play is called a classic ...the writing transports us so effortlessly ; there is so much yearning and hope and affection here'.<br /> Most of the performances disappointed you , Kevin, in some significant way. And there is also this matter of the modern understanding of things , some signs of which you felt ought to have been there. A sense of post-traumatic stress disorder in Roo; a stronger suggestion of the compromises or a darkness that lie in Emma's past.How would these things manifest? In a more brooding , nervy Roo? I can't help feeling you are asking Ms Nevin to play something that isn't there . Not in THIS play by Lawler , anyway. <br /> I hope that in the months and years to come Robyn Nevin will not only play crotchety cranky old dames. But whether in a comic moment - such as the scene at the piano - or a tougher one - as when she confronts Roo - for me she supplies everything that is required , and her intonations ring in the memory. I admired many aspects of the other actors' work...as you say , Helen Thomson knows how to capitalize on the comic potential in a scene , and this is a gift we have seen recently in both "In the Next Room" and "God of Carnage", plays set in very different social milieus. I think back and I know why you cavil about Yael Stone here; I guess her torrent of energy swept me away.Surely anyone who sees this production will take away memories of Dan Wyllie's face in its different moods ...and I think 'attention must be paid' to the passion that he and Steve le Marquand bring to their desperate brawling as the summer idyll finally falls apart. It looks that for you , Kevin , it was a case of sound and fury signifying not much. Makes me wish I could see it a second time , to test out my own reaction - the pity I felt for these floundering legends of the summer blow-in....<br />For so much of the play Susie Porter is a little dynamo - bustling in preparation ,dancing with delight, bursting with the will to make the most of this returning 'best of times'. Perhaps this is why the ultimate image of Olive staggering from the scene - stunned , slowed right down and utterly alone on the boulevard of broken dreams - will surely live with us all. Ms Porter yet again shows the tremendous depth of her talent.johnnoreply@blogger.com