Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep - Defector Arts (2006) |
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Posted May 2006 Reviewer: Samantha Hill Being lead down a twisting corridor of children's drawings by two angry and rather tall police officers is not always how one imagines being ushered into a theatre. Of course, the effect is meant to be threatening and to ensure the audience understands what it is like to be dominated, but one can't help smiling or even giggling nervously. It's one of those things that doesn't quite work as well as imagined - we know the police officers can't hurt us, we know they're only actors, and the only thing that could make us feel uncomfortable would be to single one of us out for humiliation… and they're not going to do that, are they? (Now that would be an interesting and dangerous show…) That is not to say that this show is not dangerous or interesting - the full frontal nudity and overt abusive sexuality make And now I lay me down to sleep one of the most confronting theatre pieces that the average theatre goer will have ever seen. It's a heavy tale about paedophilia and sexual abuse that not only deals with female victims, but gives a frank portrayal of a man's loss of innocence too. The actors are for the most part sexy, young things parading around in their underwear - this may seem titillating at first, but the power games they wield on each other; swapping aggressive and submissive characters, infuses the production with a sickened sexuality that perfectly captures the mood of abuse. As the gravity of this play hits with full force, one can't help but feel ashamed of smiling on the way into the theatre. And this feeling does not retreat - the play is a constant assault of images, repressed memories, and actors screaming about how terrible sexual abuse is - how can the audience not feel guilty in some way? The structure of the play is surprising with its mid-point twist and inversion of reality, but more needed to be made of this. The discovery that our protagonist is actually a character dreamed up by the real protagonist is great theatre; everyone loves having the rug pulled out from under them. She is created as a persona of strength so the male protagonist can imagine how a normal, healthy life is lived, but the audience only sees the imaginary woman as another victim of abuse. This dual personality idea feels like it has so much potential, but with both characters living the same story with no change or development, it's simply treading water. The strength of this female character, Leanne (Frances Marrington) lies more in the actor's presence and physical grounding than the character herself. She is clearly more proactive than her creator, Lee (Leon Durr), but to have actually seen the character take off and lead the action would have been much more thrilling. The police officer characters (Luke Prendergast and Bronwyn Murphy) are actually more interesting than the protagonists as they evolve into surreal, flirtatious tormentors who use their lust for one another to intimidate Leanne. They then merge into opposing counsel in the sexual abuse court case: still engaged in flirtatious behaviour, but now with an unnerving power game twist which propels the female prosecutor to let her feelings fly. This is the moment when Bronwyn Murphy finally displays her abilities: she slips into the skin of this emotionally wrenched character and serves up a monologue of real depth and conviction. This is a difficult piece to analyse and review: the feelings and events behind the piece are still raw. Abuse of children is real and it is a horror that no medium can ever adequately capture; we buy tickets to the theatre to be entertained, to be challenged, to be made to feel something. But we still demand some kind of story; a development in which characters change, events push them in different directions and they take action. These characters were static. The group of actors were all fully committed to their roles; comfortably playing the extremes of serious reality and dreamlike surrealism, but the characters they portray all seem trapped in either victim or aggressor opposites. To really feel the depth and complexity of this story it needed more characters who could be both. The confidence with which the writer has undertaken this story has to be commended, along with his talent at drawing a narrative structure around the concept of abuse, but it still feels as if the play needs something more. And now I lay me down to sleep was written by Frank Otis and Directed by Lauren Clair. It was performed by Defector Art Theatre at Gasworks Arts Park from the 24th to 27th May 2006. |
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