The Early Hours of a Reviled , March 11, 1997

The Early Hours of a Reviled Man by Howard Barker

La Mama at Car Studio One, Nicholson St. Fitzroy until March 30, 1997

reviewed by Kate Herbert around March 11, 1997

For the unstable, a solitary journey through the night into the dawn can be pure torment. So it is for Sleen in Howard Barker's play, The Early Hours of a Reviled Man.

He beats a path parallel to that of the mediaeval Everyman, pursued by a dark retinue of malevolent ghosts from his sordid past - or are they real?

The reviled man is based on the 20th century French novelist L.F. Celine. Sleen, like Celine, is anti-Semitic racist, a doctor who worked amongst the poor and constantly reframed his past to suit his own perverse needs. Sleen has written pamphlets supposedly on democracy but which have promoted racial hatred.

The production, directed by Daniel Schlusser who also plays Sleen, captures, with abstract style and stark evocative lighting, the pained journey through back alleys into obsession and madness.

Setting this production in an industrial location that is by day a car repair centre and, oddly, also a dry-cleaning facility enhances the poetic and provocative writing of Barker's intellectual text.

In this allegorical journey, his "ghosts" become his captors and potential murderers. They batter and berate him for having wronged them and for being their fallen idol "the hero of all classes". He has caused Roon, a student, to lose his conscience although he continues to be Sleen's support and rescuer.

He has ruined the career chances of a lunatic, shattered the history of a jewish doctor and annihilated a young woman's hopes of love. They are violent and angry but cannot destroy the man who is the object of their venom. He continues to exist because of their vengeance or do they exist as a result of his guilt?

There is some unevenness in the performances but Schlusser is a strong central figure as the sour and cynical Sleen. Meg White as Jane and Sandra Pascuzzi as the doctor are sympathetic characters. Michael Burkett is excellent in a finely controlled performance as Roon and a wildly quirky cameo as an old female patient in the opening scene.

The location provided a second layer to the design and soundscape. Extraordinarily appropriate but unplanned sound and lighting effects drifted in from Fitzroy streets to augment the midnight cityscape and sound design. There are problems with the acoustics in the space that made parts incomprehensible but this is a fascinating production of a very fine play.

KATE HERBERT