Theatre eats itself

Went to a play last Saturday [ and if it seems like I only just blogged that, well ... that just shows how lazy I am at blogging : that was LAST MONTH!!! ]

Anyway, the play was Attempts on her life, by Martin Crimp. Here’s the blurb:

Imagine you’re trying to speak to a woman called Anne. You leave messages on her machine, but in vain. It’s as if she’s disappeared. Where? With whom? To do what? Who else is leaving her messages? Is she alive or dead? Is she Anne, Annie, or Anya? The more unreachable she is, the more you wonder who she really is.

If she could disappear so inexplicably, then perhaps she’s not the person you thought she was. You begin to fantasise. She’s with a casual lover in a foreign hotel. She’s a terrorist on the run. She’s a psychotic artist turning her attempted suicide into an artwork. She’s the wife of a right-wing anarchist maniac. She’s a luxury sports car. The “attempts on her life” are attempts to define her.

What the … ? In the event, this seemed to be the result of a group work-shopping a script, where someone transcribed the conversation and printed it as a script. Ho-hum. While there were a few good lines, and laughs, we had a few [two, I think] it was all very insy-winsy, and up itself. And rather incomprehensible.

Except that, by the end, yes, they had sort of pieced together a story of a woman’s life. A little hysterically, and a not very interesting story, but still … not without effect.

Before play we went to a pub … um, you know, that one in Gilbert street … which was cheapish, tasty and with excellent, cheerful competent services. What’s the world coming to?

Lamb Shanks and a Play

Out last night with the usual bunch for dinner and a play.

First, to Regatta’s on the Torrens for dinner. I love Regatta’s – the food is excellent, the ambiance is great and there’s plenty of elbow room so you can hear you friends when they talk. It’s a shame that the STC always schedule the plays to start at 7:30pm, so we have to eat and run (literaly) as well as starting at 6pm, which is a bit early for a Saturday night. And it was a great shame this night that they didn’t listen when we said we had to be done by 7:25pm. Service was slower than it should have been. Anyways, my main course (only course) was Lamb shanks, and was delicious. For some reason though, some of our party decided at 7:05 that they wanted dessert, so a little performance art ensued when it hadn’t arrived at 7:25 and we had to go.

So, made it to the theatre at the last mo, and climbed over all the ppls who had tickets for the end seats and therefore elected to get seated early (wtf?).

And so to The Play.

The play was Blue/Orange, by Joe Penhall, and won some awards for best new play in 2000. Never heard of Joe, but I know nothing. According to the cheat sheet, he was screenwriter for Enduring Love, which I also never heard of, or forgot.

Anyway, this play is set in a London Psychiatric hospital, and revolves around patient Christopher, who does a splendid impression of lunacy, a young trainee psychiatrist and an older consultant. Christopher was brought in by the police 28 days ago after an incident, and is due to be released. Young doc wants to detain him for longer because he thinks he’s schizophrenic. Old doc wants to release him to “community care” because they don’t have the beds. Yadda yadda, lots of dialogue ensues, with the usual about funding, NHS, beds, institutionalisation, drugs, side effects, etc. plus some interesting stuff about labels such as schizophrenia being detrimental long term to the patient and not helpful if there’s no effective treatment anyway. Oh yeah, and also stuff about race and diagnosis.

Did I mention this was a comedy?

There are some witty lines, and a couple of belly laughs, mostly courtesy of Christopher and the older doc. But overall the tone is a little heavy and depressive as a comedy, so the effect is a bit uneven. And none of it entirely credible.

Performances were great from Robert Jordan (the patient) and William Zappa (the Consultant). A bit less so from Renato Musolino as the trainee shrink – a little too hysterical.

Wound up the evening with a hot choc from Amore.

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