REVIEW | Face to Face
April 5th 2000 23:59
FACE TO FACE
by DAVID WILLIAMSON
Ensemble Theatre's world premiere production of this play is touring Australian towns thanks to Playing Australia. I caught it tonight (05/04/00) at the PARRAMATTA RIVERSIDE THEATRES. It is one of the most intense experiences in the theatre you could hope for. In the space of an hour and a half, with the most basic of sets and lighting designs, ten very talented actors get to play out a very meaty drama.
Director Sandra Bates is to be credited for her common sense and loyalty to what is potentially a very droll night in the theatre. FACE TO FACE deals with a realistic drama, based on the new justice system called Community Conferencing and playwright Williamson packs it with the sort of subtext that really exposes him for the craftsman he is. The text allows the actors to arrive as characters with complex subtext, back stories and spontaneous feeling. Sandra Bates' casting is spot on. Geoff Cartwright as the Convenor of the evenings Conference is quite brilliant. He manages to contain his powerful group of Participants, keep them focused, direct them towards positive outcomes and recap some of the sharpest points in a way that makes these real people out there in the world seem like total heros.
There're plenty of Williamson laughs in the play, and some very strong emotion. Issues of racism, pecking orders, tolerance, sexism, humility and loyalty get a very clear airing. This play could be a riotous comedy if it was pushed that way. But Sandra Bates doesn't go there. She keeps everything just low key enough for it to work in a documentary style. As we enter the theatre we are given a note thanking us for joining this evening's Community Conference. It is a tidy anti-theatricalism, that helps to create real life as it happens drama.
Perhaps the most important role to be cast is that of the young offender Glen Tregaskis cast
brilliantly and played marvelously by NIDA graduate Duncan Young. Here is an actor who deserves to play some of the great roles for guys in the Australian theatre canon. Williamson must be delighted with Young to realize his hot-wired-giant Tregaskis. Barry Langrishe and Sharon Flanagan create a very real married couple with Greg & Claire Baldoni. VCA Graduate Lauren Clair is very very good as Therese Martin a woman who has been freaked out by a bad joke played on a workmate. She's another performer who I'll look forward to seeing more of in the future.
If community justice is something you have an interest in - see this play, read this play - it's a very good piece. It has universality, Australian-ness and that rare thing on the stage, humility. I think it may have become my favourite Williamson play bumping Don's Party into second place. I'm really glad to have seen it. Top marks and credits all 'round.
David Paul Jobling
by DAVID WILLIAMSON
Ensemble Theatre's world premiere production of this play is touring Australian towns thanks to Playing Australia. I caught it tonight (05/04/00) at the PARRAMATTA RIVERSIDE THEATRES. It is one of the most intense experiences in the theatre you could hope for. In the space of an hour and a half, with the most basic of sets and lighting designs, ten very talented actors get to play out a very meaty drama.
Director Sandra Bates is to be credited for her common sense and loyalty to what is potentially a very droll night in the theatre. FACE TO FACE deals with a realistic drama, based on the new justice system called Community Conferencing and playwright Williamson packs it with the sort of subtext that really exposes him for the craftsman he is. The text allows the actors to arrive as characters with complex subtext, back stories and spontaneous feeling. Sandra Bates' casting is spot on. Geoff Cartwright as the Convenor of the evenings Conference is quite brilliant. He manages to contain his powerful group of Participants, keep them focused, direct them towards positive outcomes and recap some of the sharpest points in a way that makes these real people out there in the world seem like total heros.
There're plenty of Williamson laughs in the play, and some very strong emotion. Issues of racism, pecking orders, tolerance, sexism, humility and loyalty get a very clear airing. This play could be a riotous comedy if it was pushed that way. But Sandra Bates doesn't go there. She keeps everything just low key enough for it to work in a documentary style. As we enter the theatre we are given a note thanking us for joining this evening's Community Conference. It is a tidy anti-theatricalism, that helps to create real life as it happens drama.
Perhaps the most important role to be cast is that of the young offender Glen Tregaskis cast
brilliantly and played marvelously by NIDA graduate Duncan Young. Here is an actor who deserves to play some of the great roles for guys in the Australian theatre canon. Williamson must be delighted with Young to realize his hot-wired-giant Tregaskis. Barry Langrishe and Sharon Flanagan create a very real married couple with Greg & Claire Baldoni. VCA Graduate Lauren Clair is very very good as Therese Martin a woman who has been freaked out by a bad joke played on a workmate. She's another performer who I'll look forward to seeing more of in the future.
If community justice is something you have an interest in - see this play, read this play - it's a very good piece. It has universality, Australian-ness and that rare thing on the stage, humility. I think it may have become my favourite Williamson play bumping Don's Party into second place. I'm really glad to have seen it. Top marks and credits all 'round.
David Paul Jobling
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