Middletown

In keeping with the old adage “save the best till last”, Red Stitch ends its mixed bag 2015 season with a stunning Australian premiere from American playwright Will Eno.

Eno is one of those writers you either love or hate. Fabulously witty, on the surface his work can seem almost absurdist and trite …but it’s the weight of what is beneath the words that makes him special. His writing is narrow but deep, and he may well be the first absurdist existentialist since Samuel Beckett…..

Beckett said of death, “Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift, through all the earth and perhaps in the end through a cliff into the sea, something of me. A ton of worms in an acre, that is a wonderful thought, a ton of worms, I believe it. –“ While Eno says of ‘being’  “We’re just chatty mammals with different names and colourful clothing” and “Botulism- a philosophy of bad choices.”

Is there a point to living? And is there a statement to be made in dying? Is it better to kill yourself or just say “F$#@k It” and go fishing? Ultimately both playwrights believe that the only point is loving, connecting. But that’s easier said than done.

Middletown is a place….built upon another place (and another and another) and it’s filled with generations of Everyman and No-One Special all living their lives while they’re waiting for life to begin. There is a narrative through-line of sorts – an almost romance between John, searching for a truth he can live with (Gareth Reeves) and Mary, carrying a child who will never know his father (Chrissy O’Neil); but otherwise the play is a series of vignettes exploring what it is to be human….the commonality of living (“Everyone in the world is born” ) and dying. You could probably just put on a CD of Elton John singing “The Circle of Life”….but this is far more entertaining. Ultimately the play gives no answers – we’re born, we live, we die – end of story. But it’s the moments in between, the striving to connect, the reaching out for….something, anything … that this production offers so superbly.

Emily Collett is most noted for her costume designs, but here she offers us a mind-blowing set – a microcosmic universe that looks for all the world like a tip of discarded 20th century materialism. And yet every piece of clutter has its own story and purpose, its own importance to someone – somewhere. It’s masterful design.

Alice Darling barely falters in her direction, though there are moments in act one when she seems overwhelmed by the text, and the blocking feels undercooked. James Lipari’s lighting design and Chris Wenn’s soundscape work to perfection. There are magic moments, as when Jordan Fraser-Tumble …as a crow…taps on the window of John’s house; bringing him back to earth while he searches the meaning of gravity. We’re all earthbound, and only some of us try to fly. Darling gives gravitas (and gravity) where it is needed, and encourages her actors to soar.

The cast is superb. Chrissy O’Neil brings credibility, vulnerability and a deep yearning for love and a need to belong to the character of Mary, in spite of the lie she is living, and the child growing within her. She is totally convincing and endearing throughout. Gareth Reeves underplays in the first act…intentionally so. He is Everyman and as such is barely noticed by anyone. A sad, grey, closeted romantic, his John is the tragedy of humanity.  His astonishing scene in the hospital, harrowing in the extreme, shows the depth of a truly fine actor. Evelyn Krape plays the Librarian with her usual idiosyncratic style. She’s quite hilarious and almost steals the show. But her unique style does seem at odds with the more realistic acting around her, and in the second act, when playing multiple characters, there isn’t the same clear definition and individuality between the roles that some other cast members achieve. James Wardlaw is just superb. His prologue - as a Public Speaker – is so brilliantly realised that it’s worth the price of a ticket on its own. His cop is completely credible in its “harmless yet threatening” intensity; but it’s his performance as the doctor which is the strongest and most memorable. Jordan Fraser-Trumble has gone from strength to strength in his season with Red Stitch, and his drug addict doing community service at the hospital is a perfectly judged performance, and the youngest member, Edwina Samuels, is totally convincing in a number of roles.

A company can only work with the text it is given and I, personally, found the last scene of act one gratuitous and uncomfortable. The inclusion of intellectually handicapped Susan in the “audience” loudly commenting on the obvious brought screams of laughter on opening night but made me squirm. But perhaps that was Eno’s intent. Those with special needs are no less human than the rest of us.

I’d happily see this production again. For me it was exhilarating and thought provoking – and Red Stitch excels in both of these. Middletown is a terrific way to close an eclectic season.

Coral Drouyn

Images: Gareth Reeves and Christina O’Neill, Christina O’Neill & Edwina Samuels, Evelyn Krape and James Wardlaw. Photographer: Jodie Hutchinson.