Corrugation Road by
Jimmy Chi
Black Swan Theatre.
Fairfax Studio until October 26, 1996
Reviewed by Kate
Herbert around Oct 17, 1996
Sheer anarchy was
loosed upon an unsuspecting audience on opening night of Corrugation Road.
Writer, Jimmy Chi, who also wrote Bran Nue Dae, flies in the face of musical
theatre convention, breaking every rule, avoiding narrative thread like the
plague and dodging form. It left one gaping at the sheer gall of its being in
the midst of the toffy old Melbourne Festival.
Chi writes peppy songs in a thousand divergent styles
ranging from Gilbert and Sullivan rhyming silliness to Country and Western. The
piece is more like a cabaret, a string of singable, completely unconnected
tunes with quirky lyrics, than a piece of musical theatre. It is begging for a
coherent storyline but, simultaneously, its very chaotic nature makes it
entertainingly bizarre.
For the character of Bob Two Bob (Stephen "Baamba"
Albert), Chi draws on his own schizophrenia, his prolonged institutionalisation
and being drugged to the eyeballs. Bob's funeral begins the piece but what
follows is a chequered journey through his dislocated, ambling mind. We visit
his past, his friends and his psychotic episodes.
It becomes difficult to discern which are memories and which
delusions. A few wild and goofy images leave one gob-smacked, the most
memorable being a giant pink rooster shakin' its tail feather and the mental
hospital is run by siamese-twin psychiatrists (Michael Turkic, Richard Mellick)
and their slinky nurse (Becky Brown).
The story, what there is of it, is an anti-hero's journey
from darkness into light. Bob's delusions allow him to revisit his past, come
to some understanding of it and then to travel forward to the place he left
long ago: sanity and Broome.
It is the joyful, energetic performances which carry this
show, particularly Ningali Lawford who brings a freshness and magnetism to the
role of Fiona. It brings aboriginal culture crashing into western musical form
and the result is astonishing. In the end, it lacks an edge and is screaming
for some moving moments.
It slides over the
surface of Bob's painful world and satirises his delusional state so that it
has little emotional impact. It lacks polish and has some clunky direction, mediocre
singing and predictable choreography but it remains engaging, warm and silly.
KATE HERBERT
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