Written by
Nick Dear
Company 97 V C A
Drama School Grant Street Theatre until May 31, 1997
Reviewed by Kate
Herbert around May 27, 1997
The most striking
element of The Victorian College of the Arts production of Nick Dear's The Art
of Success is its extraordinary design in the newly re-opened Grant Street
Theatre. New Zealand director, Colin McColl's vision, in conjunction with his
costume and set designers (Julie Renton) provides a provocative and innovative
concept for an ordinary play
Dear is a contemporary British writer who uses the collision
of social and linguistic anachronisms and modernisms to highlight the
commonalities between our generation and that of 18th century English
decadence. He has a great facility for pithy quips and rapier-sharp ripostes
and he can sling together an epithet or a bawdy reference about any old thing.
The Art of Success is about engraver, William Hogarth
(Justin Smith) who dragged himself out of poverty to become one of Britain's
favoured artists. The narrative has two threads. One focuses on his
relationship with the political nepotist, Prime Minister Walpole (Christopher
Brown) and Hogarth's inner circle of roustabout friends: one a peer of the
realm (Oscar Reding), another in the House of Commons (Brown again) and the
third being Henry Fielding (Simon Oats).
The second story follows the various women in his life: his
sweet, virginal wife (Alexandra Schepsi) who lives in blissful ignorance of
Louisa, his favourite harlot (Miria Kostiuk) and the murderess Sarah (Sophie
Gregg) who he draws in her death cell. Hogarth is a charming devil who, in his
naivete, abuses all three. He deceives his wife, enacts gross perversions on
his mistress and uses Sarah's notoriety for his own material gain.
The entire cast of this graduate production are strong but
there are some notable performances. Smith brings warmth and a youthful charm
to the rather distasteful Hogarth. Brown is a stately and rich-voiced Walpole
while Kostiuk is divinely sexual as the whore. A cameo by Rachel Tidd as the
titillating Queen Caroline was a delight.
The play itself is light and inconsequential, its visual
components, set (Julie Renton), make-up, costume (Katherine Peters), dramatic
lighting and distressed violin soundtrack (Bronwyn Dunston) featuring. Costumes
are constructed entirely from plastic materials. Gowns are provocatively
transparent and morning coats shimmer and reflect: Plastic Gothic.
The slatted floor has nine "conversation pits"
inset. Each is a location for a scene: brothel filled with pink cushions, the
boudoir with white, pub littered with empty beer cans, the riverside with mud.
It is all ˆwell-conceived if a little over-designed.
KATE HERBERT
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