Adapted from Samuel Beckett's novella, produced by Victorian Theatre Company & Theatre Works
At TW Explosives Factory, Rear Laneway, 67 Inkerman St., St. Kilda until 3 June 2023
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: **** (4)
This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 27 May 2023.KH
 |
| Robert Meldrum Worstward Ho pic by Chelsea Neate |
Worstward Ho is a challenging performance for both actor and audience, but actor, Robert Meldrum, is compelling, inspiring and mesmerising in this solo, 60-minute work which almost defies description – but let’s try.
Adapted from Samuel Beckett’s final piece of writing, a novella of the same name, Worstward Ho resonates with Beckettian style and his themes of the human existential dilemma.
The piece is non-narrative, abstract, non-linear and demands our full attention. Meldrum is an unnamed, non-specific man, who wrestles with words and their meaning, wrangling language into new patterns, syntax and poetic forms. He begins with single words only as he struggles to understand his environment and anything or anyone that enters his orbit.
We are meaning makers, so we render the remainder of the picture from those few, fragmented words and mangled, paradoxical phrases he speaks. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he advances to almost complete sentences. I say almost, because the connective tissue of language is often absent: he uses no personal pronouns, constructs new words or strings them together in absurd but strangely meaningful ways, such as “better worse” or “best worst”.
He is grappling with existence itself – or, rather, the end of existence – facing “the shades”, “the dim”, “the void”, “the gulf”. In this “dim” he perceives “the bowed back” of what may be an old woman, “the twain”, an old man walking, holding the hand of a small child, and he perceives “the head” that is later reduced to “the skull”, or even simply “the stare”.
Meldrum’s rich, dark-honey voice lulls and compels us to listen to his every word, then startles with sudden outbursts of frustration or rage. His physicality elucidates the character's inner thoughts and feelings, with his movements shifting unpredictably from slinking to jolting and his expressive face softening and hardening with every mood change.
Richard Murphet’s direction is complex, nuanced and conjures an otherworldly atmosphere within which Meldrum exists. Murphet's lighting is bold and evocative, creating another character – even characters – on stage, with stark shadows that haunt Meldrum as he prowls around the dim space, slumps at a table where he is lit by only a desk lamp, leans against the rear wall lit by harsh side lighting, or steps into darkness until he emerges in a new patch of dim light.
Worstward Ho is a must if you love Beckett and are up for the challenge.
by Kate Herbert
 |
| Robert Meldrum Worstward Ho pic supplied by Theatre Works |
No comments:
Post a Comment