Written by Janis Balodis
Melbourne Theatre Company, at Fairfax Studio, until March 30, 1996
There is a company of very fine actors on stage in My
Father's Father by Janis Balodis. Unfortunately, they are speaking words of
clay in a text begging for a savage edit.
This is the third in Balodis' trilogy about the experience
of Latvian migrants which is based on his family experience. The parents with
an adult Australian-born son, return to Latvia to face their pasts.
It began on a light, accessible note but quickly lapsed into
the portentous and turgid. Relationships
were contrived and narrative confused. There were occasional jokes but
generally the humour was lame and almost embarrassing. At times it collapses into near melodrama.
The script is a tangle of disorderly threads which create a
messy narrative. There are too many plot lines: the family's return to Latvia,
Carl's father's death, Uncle Edvards death, the ghosts of his drowned wife and
her lover, Ilse and Edvards affair, Carl's sister and nephew's poverty, cousin
Anita's acquisition of their land. Finally, there is the Leichhardt story.
Why Balodis has persevered with this oblique, irrelevant and
incomprehensible sub-plot of the explorer's final doomed journey is a mystery.
It was out of context and unsuccessful in the previous play and is completely
disconnected here.
The dialogue is awkward and informational with no
distinctive character voices. It became unbearably repetitive. Emotion is
described and dramatic tension is completely absent.
The actors have an uphill battle with this text. Paul
English makes a fine fist of the role of the son even though there is no development
for him. Peter Adams is forced to play a drunken boor all night. Others have to
struggle with dialogue riddled with platitudes and repetition. The whole
production is static and lacking any dynamic drive. Even the design does not
serve them well. These actors should be commended.
This was a very long night in the theatre.
By Kate Herbert 19 mar 1996
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