An Indian Summer by Julia Britton, 16 Jan 1994

 

By Performing Arts Projects

At Rippon Lea House from 16 Jan, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This review was published in Melbourne Times after Jan 16, 1994.

 

January in Melbourne has been more of an Antarctic than an Indian summer, but Performing Arts Projects pays no heed. It's outdoor performance, ˜An Indian Summer is playing in the glorious grounds of Ripponlea. The audience, carrying fold-up chairs, is led from the gates by the robust tour guide, and actors are posed en route frozen in tableau amongst the trees.

 

 Julia Britton's story is set at Garsington, the Oxfordshire mansion of Lady Ottoline Morrell, patron of the Bloomsbury group. Director, Robert Chuter, has used seven locations including the driveway, stables, orchard, lake and croquet lawns. In fact, the greatest asset of this production is the surroundings which so sumptuously evoke Garsington and the period. 

 

The audience seemed to enjoy both the performance and the location. There are some very smart quotes from Bloomsbury characters, some entertaining moments and a creative use of the gardens although often background action was more fascinating than scenes. Chuter has actors boating on the lake, strolling and standing about the house and garden. The performance is often upstaged by screeching birds, aeroplanes, trains and even an incoming wedding.

 

Although it is a delightful evening in the garden, there are several problems with his production one being that the script has no dramatic action. This is the last weekend before Lady Ottoline sells Garsington. This central issue might have generated intense emotion for the party, but the whole remains totally unemotional and unaffecting.  The most interesting events are spoken about. Nothing actually happens.

 

The script relies on information and quotes about the art, philosophy and sexual preferences of its various artistic and indulgent characters: biographer and bisexual Lytton Strachey; his lover Dora Carrington; painter and sister to Virginia Wolf, Vanessa Bell; ballet dancers from Diaghelev's company; Aldous Huxley and his long-suffering wife, Keynes the economist and the odd fop.

 

Scenes are very static. The acting style is arch and often histrionic which leaves it without heart. Somehow, extraordinary characters emerge lacking in dynamism and charm. The pace is unnecessarily slow and the script needs editing, but anyone who has an interest in the Bloomsbury set will find it interesting and watchable.

 

Kate Herbert   14.1.94       360 wds