Friday 14 July 2000

Every Perfect Gift by Michael Richards, July 14, 2000


La Mama at the Courthouse until July 16, 2000
Reviewer: Kate Herbert

It is unusual to see a good crime thriller in the theatre. They are usually the property of the small screen. Every Perfect Gift, by Michael Richards, is a good example of the genre, and is particularly entertaining if one has a penchant for the psycho-thriller. Hands up comrades in crime!

Richards is a screen writer which it is evident in the structure and style of his writing. Where is differs from screen, however, is in the staging and some of the content. The space at the Courthouse is almost empty. In fact, the voices bounce a little too much in such a resonant space.

The cavernous stage enables director Phil Roberts to suspend the actors in time and space. Tegan, the protagonist, floats in a blue pool of light centre-stage as if she is an another world. Another three characters are dead, murdered it seems. We see them living in flashbacks.

Tegan (Lisa Angove) is a vague and confused New Age mother of a 13 year old girl. She is taken hostage by Stan, (Jamie Unicomb) a slow-witted bank robber who bungled the robbery, forcing his thuggish half-brother, Arnie (Joe Clements) to kill a copper.
Stan has no plan but he hauls Tegan off to Poppy's (Peita Collard) house where the journey into chaos begins.

The narrative explores the fine line between madness and sanity, elation and depression, piety and sin. Tegan's life is a murky pond when we look into her past. She teeters on the edge of breakdown as she confronts imprisonment and violence at the hands of the men and friendship and support from the hapless crime moll and junkie, Poppy.

Roberts keeps the pace swift and action tight. At times, the lighting design (Julian Firminger) could have focused the action more effectively. Angove finds some very moving moments in the very challenging role of Tegan. Clements is the strength in this production. His portrayal of Arnie is terrifyingly real. He walks the edge of psychotic behaviour almost too credibly.

Richards’ structure is complex. He revisits scenes in the recent past, unpeeling layers of the story for us so we are tantalised by each morsel. Some of the revelations are too slow and some information is repeated too often but generally the slow reveal works like a theatrical strip tease.

By Kate Herbert


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