A Quiet Life, La Mama, 29 November 1995

 

by Belinda Bradley

At a Mama at Courthouse until Sat Dec 16, 1995

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on 29 November 1995 for The Melbourne Times

 

There were titters rather than guffaws during Belinda Bradley's A Quiet Life.

 

The language is witty with an alliterative, staccato, almost percussive rhythm. Characters are broad and clown-like drawing on stereotypes without being too predictable or simplistic. There is tragedy in their banal predicament.

 

George Chapman is doomed from the beginning.  He and his wife Mary - dull drudges who run a scruffy boarding house - have a quiet life - until pretty Polly Blue arrives. Enter the unwittingly seductive third party! So much for the quiet life. In the dregs of her lavender-scented bath, George fantasises about his bird-like new tenant. Ah, tender romance! Sam, Ruth and Harry, other tenants, eavesdrop and comment on the action. Cynics! There is almost a Victorian melodrama in this.

 

Director, Rosalie Zycher, has kept the action and staging simple and abstract. Characters never speak directly to each other. The tenants perch on scaffolding acting as a chorus, peering and gossiping with alliterative wacky and perverted commentary. I wanted them to misbehave more, to be more physical, more dangerous. Their gabbling and antics raise the energy level and reflect the emotional dynamic of our vague and romantic George as he careers inexorably down the mountain to his inevitable suicide.

 

 The lyrical, pastel, almost cartoon-like, design by Zycher and Lisa Thomas heightens the simplicity of the narrative. Actors hang out painted washing, pack two dimensional suitcases and eat lamb chops painted onto plates painted onto a table.

 Their lives are not quite real.

 

Performances are sound and the season will tighten up the brisk pace required for Bradley's rapid dialogue. There are echoes of dialogue. There are echoes of  Under Milkwood in this text but the concentration on alliteration becomes repetitive and tiring. I can't help thinking that this would make a strong radio play.

 

KATE HERBERT 29 11 95