Aquarius Productions
at Chapel off Chapel
until June 25, 2000
Reviewer: Kate
Herbert
It is always a
pleasant surprise to stumble upon a good show when one is not expecting it.
Wrecked Eggs is one of those in spite of its rather self-conscious title.
This production of English playwright David Hare's 75-minute
play, is directed by David Myles at Chapel off Chapel. Hare's writing is always
intelligent and witty. His dialogue is life a fencing match with rapiers poised
but no blood drawn.
Conversations are tinged with unrealised menace and he
leaves us anticipating disaster. He suggests that even the most innocuous and
ordinary lives are riddled with unpredictability.
His plot tilts and writhes like some slippery creature. We
never know where it might turn.
Robbie (Jeremy Stanford) and Loelia (Frédériqué Fouché) are
a couple on the brink of separation, which in itself is a surprise to their
single guest, Grace, ( Bernadette Schwerdt) to whom they seem the perfect
couple.
Robbie and Loelia
have loosely invited guests for a weekend rite of passage celebration of their impending divorce. Only
Grace, a relative stranger, arrives.
Schwerdt must be one of Melbourne theatre's best-kept
secrets. She is a charming dramatic and comic actor with a quirky look,
intelligent interpretation and detailed emotional performance.
Stanford, known for his wonderful work in musical theatre
finds a fine edgy charm as Robbie and captures his deception, jealousy,
insecurity and conservatism.
Fouché plays the
naivete of his French wife and has a peppy style but, as yet, she has not found
the depth or truth in the role.
The open, split-level staging and rather noisy flooring do
not enhance the show. Myles could have contained the piece in a more intimate,
confined stage space to explore the intense an claustrophobic atmosphere. The
actors are forced to pace about the large space to fill it. However, this is a
very satisfying night at the theatre.
By Kate Herbert
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