Quills

Quills
By Doug Wright. Directed by Chris Baldock. A Mockingbird Production. Arts House – the Meat Markets, North Melbourne. 2nd-15th August, 2014

Oh, if only all theatre companies were as brave as Mockingbird. Good theatre should be more than just entertaining, it should be always evocative and, when possible, provocative and even confronting. Director Chris Baldock doesn’t shy away from any of these in his production of Doug Wright’s seldom-performed gasp-a-minute play Quills, about the (fictitious) last days of the infamous Marquis de Sade in Charenton asylum.

The play, an homage to both Grand Guignol and Theatre of The Absurd, confronts us with debauchery and perversion of every kind, yet is also hilariously funny when excesses become unacceptably extreme. Basically, the storyline concerns the Asylum’s new Doctor, Royer-Collard (Adam Ward), who colludes with the Marquis’ wife Renee Pelagie (Andrea McCannon) to stop de Sade from writing his lascivious novels and plays because they are an embarrassment to her. Standing in their way is the Abbe de Coulmier, who seeks to protect de Sade’s creativity as being God given (in actual history, the Abbe who was an elderly debauched libertine, created a theatre at the Asylum for de Sade’s plays, and Paris society comprised the audience). Eventually the Abbe conforms to traditional morality and de Sade is macabrely dismembered in stages in an effort to shut him up. It’s a play that carries much philosophical subtext and questions our conventions. Art versus censorship; freedom of expression; what is “normal” and can we be corrupted by something outside of ourselves? Does creativity have a responsibility towards the uninitiated, non-creative, or should it be beyond the scrutiny of conventional morality? Does Art corrupt, and is that corruption acceptable. These are HUGE questions for a play to carry along with a quite simplistic storyline, and they tend to mask, with the greater esoterica, the fact that every character in the play, including the Saint-like Abbe is despicably human at the core. There is no-one to like, no-one to care about, but the ideas are fascinating. Are they, however, entertaining? Many will say no, and Director Baldock has already predicted that the production will polarise people, but a theatre review must be about the production, and not the merits of the play.

Baldock has opted for the style of Melodrama, rather than naturalistic performance, and it does seem to make the play more cohesive. The declamatory style of delivering dialogue (perfected by Adam Ward as the Doctor) with accentuated exaggeration; of moving with often un-natural physicality; takes the play away from reality and actually makes it easier to digest. He has added an ensemble of ‘Lunatics’ to the asylum, a brilliant visionary stroke, and even the suggestion that we may be viewing a play within a play, as costumes are handed out to the inmates. Whilst the lunatics (mostly acting graduates) provide marvellous atmosphere and credibility, they are peripatetic and that means they sometimes pull focus from the main action. It’s a checks and balances situation which needs careful addressing as the season progresses as it could get far more out of hand. But Baldock will no doubt be across that.

The Director has found his Marquis de Sade in Adrian Carr, who gives a brilliantly flamboyant and charismatic performance. It is made doubly impressive by the fact that Carr plays a good 60% of the play totally naked. He earns my utmost admiration for his bravery, especially since his flamboyance seems heightened when stripped of trappings. One could easily draw comparisons between the characters of the Marquis and Hannibal Lector, yet the latter seemed charming and even heroic. No such charm inhabits the Marquis, and it’s a shame because, when the Marquis is brutalised and dissected, the audience should surely feel something akin to pity or empathy. The tragedy of Art…whether we approve or not… being systematically destroyed should move us.

Adam Ward (The Doctor) is a stalwart member of Mockingbird and I have admired his work in the past. He understands totally the style his Director requires and delivers, but he cannot quite overcome the fact that he is boyishly youthful and too young to play the doctor whom even the playwright drew as an elderly man newly married to a young bride. It is, after all, the reason for her nymphomania, and why he embezzles the money to keep her happy. Props to him for his commitment, but an elderly doctor would have helped the play’s intent. Andrea McCannon is excellent as de Sade’s socially driven wife Renee, and Lauren Murtagh impresses as Madeleine (who was actually a 15 year old girl) though she does feel too “knowing” in some of her naïve adulation of the Marquis’ works. Dylan Watson effectively realises the Abbe’s journey into depravity and madness, yet didn’t – on opening night – have a real handle on the Melodramatic style of acting the Director has chosen. No doubt that will be perfected as the run continues. Jordan Armstrong and Andi Snelling complete the main cast and both are impressive.

Jason Bovaird’s lighting design is everything one expects from the man who is rapidly becoming the most talked about Lighting Director in the state if not the country. It stunningly illuminates, casts shadows, creates illusions and is absolutely integral to the production.

It’s not often that I review a venue, but in this case I am compelled to. One could never imagine a more perfect space to depict a lunatic asylum than Arts House…the old Meat Market. It is steeped in tradition and atmosphere right down to its cobblestone floors. We feel as though we have ALL entered an asylum. And yet, its logistics work against the staging of the play. The audience is seated in long lines facing each other down the enormous length of the building. Behind the audience on both sides are the lunatics, always in sight. The major playing areas are on rostrums at either end  - at 90 degree angles to the audience. The shape dictates that we are watching a tennis match for most of the time and that certainly led, in this reviewer, to a badly cricked neck. And because everyone leans forward to see past the person beside them, un-natural sight-lines are created, and leading actors are often seen only in peripheral vision. It’s a shame, because Baldock’s vision is stunning, but the central raised dais (where the visuals are perfect for all the audience) is under-utilised except by the lunatics and their writhing. This is brought home by the scene of the Abbe’s dream of the dead Madeleine, which plays at the level of intensity one would have hoped for in the systematic destruction of the Marquis. It would be wonderful if there was some way to see Carr’s brilliant performance in its totality centre stage where he belongs.

I think it’s safe to say that Mockingbird is no longer in the nest…it’s a fully-fledged and feathered creature that is flying high. I admire this production but I am hoping for a return to what Baldock has given us so brilliantly on all other occasions….. something to move us, someone to care about.

Coral Drouyn

Photographer: Michael Foxington.

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