Perplex

If you like theatre of the absurd, and accept that life is pretty absurd anyway, then you’ll love Perplex. On the other hand, if you’re fairly straight and just a little bit of a control freak, you might think it’s pretty silly. In either case, you’ll frown a little, wonder a little, maybe squirm a little – and probably laugh a lot. And either way, you’ll leave the theatre feeling a little … well, perplexed.

Von Mayenburg has borrowed from and intertwined the most accepted and recognisable characteristics of absurdism and put them together in a Pirandello-style play where characters never stay what they seem to be. It’s a play about identity – about how we see ourselves, how we see others, how others see us – and how easy it is to lose whatever control we might think we have of our lives.

Put that together with a series of overlapping, seemingly unrelated scenes and four characters that metamorphose within them – in a space that stays the same and confusion could reign. It doesn’t, because von Mayenburg has kept a very tight rein on the writing. It is economic in the extreme, until perhaps the final scene, which, though totally absurdist in style, pulls down the pace of the action and a little of the impact of the play.

The actors – Andrea Demetriades, Glenn Hazeldine, Rebecca Massey and Tim Walters – use their own names, as von Mayenburg did in his own production in Germany. Artistic Director Andrew Upton suggests this shows “an openness in the performers and a preparedness to skate very close to their own identities”.

“Skate” is an appropriate word to describe the pace required in this production. The actors slip and slide at an alarming rate from character to character, relationship to relationship, situation to situation. The only things that stay the same are their names, the set and some props that accumulate and obscurely tie the scenes together.

The apparent simplicity and spaceof the set, designed by Renee Mulder, is intricate to the action. Because there is a lot of it. Action, that is! At times it is fast and furious, almost Pythonesque. There’s a bit of slapstick, a lot of farce, some falls, business with doors and windows, fancy dress, full frontal nudity and a sex scene. As I said, if you’re straight and don’t have much patience with absurdism …

Director Sarah Giles has obviously had fun directing this play – as much fun as von Mayenburg himself had in creating it.  He writes “ … the entire rehearsal process was pure joy as far as I remember. The play was my present to actors I loved working with …”. With this cast, Giles seems to have found similar joy.

For some, the play will be funny and thought-provoking. For some it might be seen to steal a little too much from the ‘masters’ of the absurd. For others it might seem like just a silly romp – but I enjoyed it immensely.

Carol Wimmer

Tim Walter, Andrea Demetriades, Glenn Hazeldine and Rebecca Massey & Andrea Demetriades (in foreground), Rebecca Massey and Tim Walter (at rear) in Sydney Theatre Company’s Perplex. Photographer: Lisa Tomasetti