The Last Gasp
At Napier Street Theatre until May 17, 1997
Reviewed by Kate
Herbert around 13 May, 1997
The beams of light
stream through holes in a galvo roof or dirty windowpanes. The warehouse is
piled with packing palettes. The atmosphere is thick with fog and umpteen
cigarettes. Ironically, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes filters downstairs from Leon's
club, The Magnolia Room.
This is not San Francisco but 1930's Port Melbourne
docklands, not Sam Spade but slightly scruffy nice-guy P.I., Eddie Cleary
(Darryl Pellizer). Neville Bryan (Joseph
Spano) has "something dodgy going on" in the property development
line on the docklands. The Premier (Andrew Gray) is in on it too. Sound
familiar?
The Last Gasp is billed as "Dance Noir" and draws heavily on film noir, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett detective novels. The design, created by the production team and Ben Cobham's seamy evocative lighting, set the scene for the genre. Nancy Black's text is appropriately witty and laconic, utilises the genre extremely well and shifts location to Melbourne without too many hiccups.
Director Anne Thompson has used movement and choreography to
abstract moments and to heighten tension, both sexual and dramatic. Couples
linger, tilt, loll and seduce with lyrical shifts of weight. The piece really
takes off at the first real sniff of sex between the vamp, Lily (Rinske
Ginsberg) and Neville, the dodgy bastard.
It paces up considerably in the second half-hour after
recovering from some shaky opening night technical hitches with voice-overs and
musical cues.
There are a couple of very funny moments and characters. Joe
Spano's club manager Leo the "dago shark" is a pure comic combo of
Peter Lorre and Manuel from Fawlty Towers and he plays with relish cowardly
business-bastard, Neville who is bored with his dowdy wife (Shona Innes).
Darryl Pellizzer is
lovable and true to the genre as the rough Aussie bloke detective who has a
heart of gold and a mean two-step.
Unfortunately, despite its entertainment and nostalgic
value, the piece lacks a coherent vision, never quite declaring its style. The
balance between drama, melodrama and dance is unclear. There are flat spots
during scene links, chunks which might benefit from more choreography and some
overwhelming audibility and acting problems from a couple of actors.
The Last Gasp may not quite do justice to the genre but the
audience certainly adored its references and hooted for the whole hour.
KATE HERBERT
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