Speaking in Tongues

Nine characters’ lives twist, weave and glance off each other in this swim through the murky side of suburban behaviours. You dip your toes in the water as two couples make tentative steps towards adultery. The current gets stronger as a man pines for the fiancée who fled to Europe before the wedding and never came back. Before you know it, you’re in over your head as another woman disappears without trace.

Ross McGregor has overseen an imaginative production and coaxed faultless performances from his cast. All must handle complex and flawed characters and each does well. Helen MacFarlane in particular glows in an incandescent performance—the strongest I’ve ever seen her. Bridgette Black, in her first stage role, impresses by conveying all the hypocrisy of a psychologically damaged psychoanalyst.

McGregor has again used a minimalist set as he did with his last play for Canberra Rep, Voyage Around My Father. However, where that play was predominantly light-coloured and misty, Speaking in Tongue’s set and lighting convey moods from sombre, through heartbreakingly sad, to sordid and sleazy, using bold, dark colours. The play opens in a nightclub, dramatically lit only by neon signs and backlit in fluorescent pinks, oranges and purples. Soon after the beginning of the second act, the set, through lighting changes alone, changes to eerie bush gothic, emphasising the most surprising plot twist. The neon colours of the costuming mirror the lighting and set, giving the play a very distinctive look and feel.

Andrew Bovell’s writing is fastidiously crafted and creative. It strikes resonances with Australians’ almost primal fear of being lost in the bush, a theme which arises again and again in our literature. The play is beautifully structured, with highly stylised sequences framing naturalistic episodes. In these poetic parts, two or more scenes will play out at once with dialogue in unison, but then break out in solo segments as the characters react individually. This speaks to how people respond differently to common experiences and emotionally charged situations. In between are scenes from the characters’ lives, not necessarily presented in time order, each of which presents a clue to the puzzle of what has happened. The audience is prompted to ponder why the woman disappeared, who is responsible and how the characters are linked, some of which remains a mystery at the end of the play.

Canberra Rep is to be congratulated for continuing to bring to the Canberra audience such quality work. This production was as satisfying as last year’s Canberra Critic’s Circle and CAT award winning Pig Iron People.

Cathy Bannister

Image: Helen MacFarlane and Lainie Hart in Speaking in Tongues. Photo: Cathy Bannister.