Written
by Hilary Bell
By Performing Lines
at The Malthouse until June 1, 1997
Reviewed by Kate
Herbert around May 28, 1997
There is something
supremely disturbing about a disturbed child. This makes Hilary Bell's Wolf
Lullaby an intensely disturbing play.
Nine year old Lizzie Gael (Susan Prior) is hyperactive,
voluble yet secretive. Her days are filled with chatter, chants and games, her
nights with terrifying nightmares about a wolf sliding unseen under the door.
She craves from her parents (Lisa Hensley & Sean O'Shea) reassurance that
she is a good girl.
Prior as Lizzie gives an exceptional and uncanny portrait of
a child. One forgets she is an adult as she skitters and slides, interrupts
demands, muses, sings and plays. She is lovable but seems possessed of a demon
that cannot let go of her tiny frame.
The play is unsettling both emotionally and physically. The
tension is excruciating as we await Lizzie's confession. Did she kill baby
Toby? Did she lure him away from his mummy and strangle him? Did she write
those frightful words on the wall, "I murder so I may come back"?
Bell has based this family's horror story in Tasmania but it
is based on such living nightmares as the Jamie Bolger murder. How can we
comprehend the epitome of innocence becoming the essence of evil?
The torment of Lizzie's mother Angela is palpable in
Hensley's moving and natural performance. Her desire to protect competes with
her need for the truth. She seeks support from her ex-husband, Warren.
"Help me", she pleads.
Anthony Phelan is effectively warm but unpredictable as the
cop/interrogator. O'Shea portrays Warren's emotional cowardice without losing
our sympathy. He has been an escape artist but this time he must face the
possibility that his nervy little girl took her game too far, that he ignored
her cries for help and her wolf took over.
Bell's dialogue has a rapid edgy realism and David O'Hare's
direction keeps the pace and dramatic tension high although the last third
drags a little. Some scenes seem unnecessarily truncated as though something we
needed to see or know is missing. Appropriately, she does not provide us with
an answer to the couple's inner plea, 'Why our child? Was it our fault?'
Genevieve Blanchett's design of walls scribbled with the
murderous graffiti and an oversized chair provides an appropriately
claustrophobic environment for this tortured story.
This is not a fun play but it is challenging with some
exceptional performances.
KATE HERBERT
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