Legacy by Jack
Hibberd
La Mama at Carlton Courthouse until Aug 9,
1997
Reviewed by Kate
Herbert round Aug 1, 1997
Jack Hibberd has an extraordinary facility for fusing the
poetic and the colloquial in language. He used this style in his masterwork,
Stretch of the Imagination, and it is once again evident in his new play,
Legacy, directed by Daniel Schlusser.
Legacy is an abstract view of a family wake. Four siblings
are in the family crypt to mourn the death, apparently by suicide pact, of both
parents. Mum and dad were obscenely
wealthy and the pariah brothers, acting as a parody of the three monkeys, want
it all.
Schlusser has kept the play contained in a space empty
except for a couch, on which the men sit cramped, and armchair for Petunia,
their sister. It is a study in the grotesque and the lewd: a black clown piece that
attacks materialism and chauvinism, nationalism and racism.
Hardwick (Burkett) is
a racist capitalist dog, Warwick (Richardson) a mummy's boy and skirt chaser,
Yorick (Hosking) a giggling follower. Petunia (Krape), as a woman and the only
genuine adult, remains an outsider.
"Some families are beyond analysis" and this is
one of them. They have a pecking order and Hardwick the banker is at the top.
They function as a corporation and "Social Darwinism" is in
operation.
Hibberd's ideas gallop and his language writhes and squirms
almost out of our grasp. He interpolates literary and mythic allusions amongst
the intentionally ordinary and pedestrian. The cast of four (Evelyn Krape,
Michael Burkett, Peter Hosking, Damien Richardson) use his text alternately as
weapon, seduction or for a rollicking good laugh.
The simplicity of Schlusser's production allows the language
and style to lead the piece. The performances are delightfully wicked and all
four actors relish the naughtiness of Hibberd's earthy imagery.
Burkett plays the 'gnome", Hardwick as a vile rank-puller
who governs the family 'corporation'. Richardson captures the infantile
Warwick's desire for their mother's 'mummery-mammery-memory'. Hoskins' Yorick
is the family pawn, the sensitive one. Krape balances the trio with a potent
and 'womanly' portrayal of the betrayed daughter.
Schlusser's direction establishes a rhythm that works until
it becomes repetitive, limiting the emotional range of actors and text. Sections of short, clipped dialogue needed
pacing up and the whole needed to explore a broader dynamic range.
Moments of genuine pain and grief would heighten the comic
elements but it is overall, an entertaining and well-crafted short play.
KATE HERBERT
No comments:
Post a Comment