by Mammad Aidani
at La Mama in association with Footscray
Community Arts Centre
until September 26, 1999
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
It is not the role of theatre to make an audience feel
stupid. It is certainly not the role of community theatre to mystify its audience.
An Accidental Departure, by Mammad Aidani, does just that.
We are all meaning-makers by nature. Toss us a mad image, an
irrational phrase or a fractured thought and we will make a story out of it.
Watching this play, it is a struggle. Perhaps Aidani's other role as a poet
interferes, making his text inappropriately fragmented for theatre. Whatever
the cause, the script does not transfer from page to stage.
The problem is not simply that the text is non-linear, nor
that it deals with esoteric issues: despair, dislocation, madness or
miscommunication. The problem is the form in which these ideas are presented.
Seven actors appear and re-appear in pairs. A man and a
woman (Carlos Sanchez, Domenica Ferraro) perch among cardboard packing boxes in
the disarray of their marriage. "We all know what it is like to live in a
box", says a man in a wheelchair who acts as an inner voice.
Another man (Craig MacDonald) struggles with the disarray of
his mind while a veiled woman (Chi Vu) taunts him . Two young people (Tony Nguyen,
Maria Papastamatopoulos) invade a house and talk. A boy eavesdrops on a woman
who talks incessantly. Another woman (Susan Jones) tells of her past.
There is one scene which works dramatically. A man tries to
impress, charm or love a woman who is uninterested. MacDonald gives the
dialogue and the character life with a sensitive and funny performance.
The writing here maintains the fragmented texture of the
rest of the play but it makes sense of character, relationship and themes of
anguish and dislocation.
Director, David Everist enlivens these awkward, disconnected
scenes and characters with unusual
entrances from under the sink, or down a rope through a roof trapdoor. He
employs a surprising soundscape, (Susan Jones) a quirky design built around
kettles and clay cups (Caroline Ho-Bich-Tuyen Dang).
Unfortunately, nothing can save this from being a very
confusing evening at La Mama.
by Kate Herbert
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