by Evan Watts
At La Mama until May 12, 1996
Reviewed by Kate Herbert around
April 28, 1996
Some would say a finite number of
stories exist which are told generation after generation by innumerable artists
in infinite formats. Count the myriad "boy meets girl" scenarios.
Evan Watts' play, Pursuing Passion, would
suggest that there are infinite potential permutations of dramatis personae. A
young journalist visits an ex-psychiatrist turned forensic psychiatrist. They
have a common past. A photographer visits and takes pictures.
Passion has
four discrete plays within the piece, which Watts calls "a play in series". Each time the
scenario restarts the general description of personae remains the same but the
story and specific characters alter radically.
Watts has
created an interesting dynamic which works best in the final scenario when the
dramatic tension is at its peak. It has a more complex and multi-layered plot,
is more intensely emotional with more finely drawn characters. All scenes
involve violence, voyeurism, obsession and this experimental theatrical device
which works in part.
The play is
part of a popular fascination with serial killers and victims. References to
particular killers and their gruesome crimes seem gratuitous to one who has
nightmares after The X Files.
It is all
set amidst a compelling design by Paul Jackson with a claustrophobic
office-mortuary feeling.
Director,
Marcia Ferguson, has a fine cast. Tammy McCarthy plays four distinct young
journos, Kevin Hopkins an array of psychiatrists all hooked on Jodie Foster,
The Silence of the Lambs or its writer. David Tredinnick is a bevy of peculiar
and familiar photographers.
Somehow,
finally, the structure interferes with the drama. It is an interesting idea but
not always successful. The repetition of scene and dialogue within scenes
becomes a little laboured. Many responded, " I didn't understand" but
the intention seems to be not to define but to draw the real and the unreal
into alignment.
KATE
HERBERT
300 wds
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