The Credeaux Canvas

The off-Broadway play The Credeaux Canvas has proved popular for small theatre producers in Sydney, having been staged just two years ago. The producer here, Les Solomon, mounted the Australian premiere 14 years ago and liked it so much he decided to bring it back (with co-producer Bryce Hallett).

Like Kenneth Lonergan’s This is Our Youth, this play is set in a Manhattan apartment and primarily concerns three young people, struggling to find their place in the world. They’re close, but willing to betray each other with little hesitation.

Presumably the appeal of the work is Keith Bunin’s sparkling dialogue and the three meaty parts for young actors. Plus (as the promotions make clear) they take their clothes off.

It’s all in the name of art, of course – or in this case, art fraud. Real estate salesman Jamie has been left nothing by his recently deceased and always unloving father, who was an art dealer. To make amends, Jamie connives a plan for his girlfriend Amelia to be painted by his best friend Winston, and to sell the work to his father’s former client Tess. It will be a nude and passed off as the painting of the (fictitious) Jean-Paul Credeaux.

The acting is intelligent and skilful, particularly from Emilie Cocquerel as Amelia. She hits the mark immediately and soars above the awkward nude scene. James Wright takes longer to hit his stride as Winston but he manages to create a convincing dweeb of an artist, while avoiding stereotypes. Felix Johnson is accomplished as Jamie and Carmen Duncan gives a superb performance as Tess – a strong woman but obviously vulnerable too.

The Credeaux Campusis tightly directed by Ross McGregor and Emma Vine’s design is very effective, with the Manhattan apartment looking like a heavily stained campus.

But while the production has many virtues, the play itself doesn’t quite hold up. The themes of art, criticism and loyalty are not explored in any depth and many of the plot developments jolt. The characters’ motives are inadequately developed and each scene finishes abruptly. Most problematic is the ending, which is so sudden that the play falls flat.

What’s more, the characters are too self-indulgent to be likeable. In the last scene, set four years later, the audience learns how their lives have developed – but there’s little reason to care.

The Credeaux Campuspresumably taps into the alienation of a generation of Manhattanites. But from our viewpoint in Sydney, these young people seem foreign, as if they’re indeed 16,000 kilometres away. The actors do their best but I’d like to see them attack a play that hits closer to home.

Peter Gotting