Devised by Ranters Theatre, text by Raimondo Cortese
Where and When: Malthouse Theatre, October 8 to 2, 2010
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ****
Intimacy makes me smile. It gives us a warm, comfortable glow, inviting us into intimate conversations between strangers who feel like our friends. It is deliciously soothing, despite its characters being sometimes dislocated and unsettled.
The performance style has an easy, gentle, conversational quality rarely seen in theatre. It avoids any heightened vocal or acting style and echoes the casual quality and lengthy pauses of everyday dialogue. By the end, it is as if we have wandered the streets with actor Paul Lum, chatting to the singular individuals who also haunt the night.
Ranters Theatre is a collaborative company creating deceptively simple theatre co-devised by its actors (Paul Lum, Patrick Moffatt, Beth Buchanan), director (Adriano Cortese) and writer Raimondo Cortese). The comfort, truthfulness and clarity of the acting and dialogue are a testament to the success of this devising process.
Lum briefly explains that he spent an evening wandering the streets near his flat, asking total strangers if they wanted a chat. “Some people said, ‘No’”, Lum quips. Intimacy is a record of some of those chats.
Lum is like a low-key interviewer interested in the lives of others. Moffatt and Buchanan, perched on rocks that litter the stage (Anna Tregloan), play the strangers without embellishment or extreme characterisations. The first character is Russell, a 62 year-old teacher of Ancient History with a fascination for visiting Roller Coasters around the world. The Birdman is a street performer who imitates birds and refuses to have his photo taken. Adrian is a pilot who has panic attacks and Mary is a Glaswegian who suffers crippling insomnia.
Encounters with strangers allow an artificial intimacy with neither past nor future. The strangers meet, commune, share their secrets and lives, then part never to meet again in most cases. (Although one of the strangers is now Lum’s mechanic.) The chats amble aimlessly, then touch on sensitive, personal issues or veer away to safer topics.
People’s lives are endlessly interesting and Intimacy allows us into worlds normally closed to us. We are like villagers around the campfire, listening to stories that enliven and educate, making us alert and more attuned to others.
By Kate Herbert
Intimacy makes me smile. It gives us a warm, comfortable glow, inviting us into intimate conversations between strangers who feel like our friends. It is deliciously soothing, despite its characters being sometimes dislocated and unsettled.
The performance style has an easy, gentle, conversational quality rarely seen in theatre. It avoids any heightened vocal or acting style and echoes the casual quality and lengthy pauses of everyday dialogue. By the end, it is as if we have wandered the streets with actor Paul Lum, chatting to the singular individuals who also haunt the night.
Ranters Theatre is a collaborative company creating deceptively simple theatre co-devised by its actors (Paul Lum, Patrick Moffatt, Beth Buchanan), director (Adriano Cortese) and writer Raimondo Cortese). The comfort, truthfulness and clarity of the acting and dialogue are a testament to the success of this devising process.
Lum briefly explains that he spent an evening wandering the streets near his flat, asking total strangers if they wanted a chat. “Some people said, ‘No’”, Lum quips. Intimacy is a record of some of those chats.
Lum is like a low-key interviewer interested in the lives of others. Moffatt and Buchanan, perched on rocks that litter the stage (Anna Tregloan), play the strangers without embellishment or extreme characterisations. The first character is Russell, a 62 year-old teacher of Ancient History with a fascination for visiting Roller Coasters around the world. The Birdman is a street performer who imitates birds and refuses to have his photo taken. Adrian is a pilot who has panic attacks and Mary is a Glaswegian who suffers crippling insomnia.
Encounters with strangers allow an artificial intimacy with neither past nor future. The strangers meet, commune, share their secrets and lives, then part never to meet again in most cases. (Although one of the strangers is now Lum’s mechanic.) The chats amble aimlessly, then touch on sensitive, personal issues or veer away to safer topics.
People’s lives are endlessly interesting and Intimacy allows us into worlds normally closed to us. We are like villagers around the campfire, listening to stories that enliven and educate, making us alert and more attuned to others.
By Kate Herbert
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