Inferno - a double bill

Masterful theatre; both works in Inferno, Crestfall and Purgatorio, are beautifully and skillfully produced by Citizen Theatre.  These very strong offerings are the culmination of carefully considered work by skilled, hardworking theatre practitioners.  The upshot is very polished theatre of ‘high quality’ on a ‘shoe string’.

For the audience the atmosphere created is welcoming and comfortable.

However the material is rich and confronting:

Crestfall is made up of three monologues from three female characters describing aspects of their unfortunate, troubled, tormented and harsh intertwined lives.  The heightened poetic language and imagery describes their dissolute and difficult existences.  At times it is reminiscent of Patricia Cornelius’s perceptive and confronting play Slut.

Frey Pragt and her strong bold character Olive Day opens this piece. Olive Day describes the difficult events in her brutal life with urgency.  Pragt is a delight to watch and listen to as she immerses herself in the trials and torments of a proud but compromised woman fighting for survival.

The language used is very strong and descriptions of sex and violence extremely graphic.  Mastering this material is no mean feat and Pragt does an exemplary job.

She is followed by Marissa O’Reilly, who plays the role of Alison Ellis.  O’Reilly’s energy and commitment to role and character beautifully endorses and extends what has been set up in the staging of the first monologue.  The last monologue is the culmination of the story.  Finally, Tilly McQuarrie, played by Marissa Bennett, experiences the most positive outcome.  She receives something of a windfall.  Or perhaps she is just younger, fitter and fresher than the other downtrodden spirits.  The material is fascinating and bemusing and performances are highly engaging.  Although Marissa Bennett (an interesting and charismatic performer) would do well to attend some intensive vocal workshops to further enhance her skill base.

In Purgatorio Frey Pragt and Jason Cavanagh are a well-matched pair of actors.  Both are acutely focused and wholly engaged and able to work with nuance and subtlety in response to each-other.  

Before watching this work it would probably be helpful to acquaint or re-acquaint oneself with the story of Medea and Jason as Purgatorio is about the unresolved torment - the damage done through their cruel treatment of each other.  

More and more we are hearing reports of infanticide happening around us and there always seems to be a production of Medea popping up somewhere, not surprisingly.  Purgatorio tries to extrude reason from Medea’s horrifying actions.

There is a rich humanity in Ariel Dorfman’s text and this is strikingly staged and stunningly lit production that honors the strength of the text.   

I can’t really recommend Inferno highly enough as the work of dedicated, gifted and inspiring theatre makers who have the capacity and energy to work on a ‘shoe-string’ budget to produce rich rewarding outcomes!

Very strong material indeed.

Suzanne Sandow