Speaking in Tongues

Black Swan State Theatre Company’s production of Andrew Bovell’s cleverly written and demanding play, Speaking in Tongues, is elegant, truthfully acted, with excellent delivery and tight direction by Humphrey Bower.

Opening on a beautifully lit stage, we see two couples dancing and showing the skills of Mark Haslam’s striking lighting design, Ash Gibson Greig’s intelligent and organic sound design and Claudia Alexis’s choreography. We soon learn that married couples Pete and Jane, and Leon and Sonja, are each having a dalliance with the opposite couple’s partner, with one couple sleeping together and the other pulling the pin. Act One explores the fallout from these events, while the second act goes further, as we see the interwoven lives of another 5 characters, mentioned in the first act, exploring similar themes and ideas.

What makes this particularly different is the interwoven dialogue as two scenes in different places are played concurrently, with interlocking and choral dialogue. This requires expert timing from the actors, who rise to the challenge, in outstanding performances.

Matt Edgerton plays Pete, Nick - lonely man pining for a long-departed lover, and John whose wife goes missing. Luke Hewitt plays policeman Leon, and Neil, who becomes a murder suspect after a neighbour sees hm disposing of a woman’s shoe. Catherine Moore inhabits Jane and Valerie, a psychologist who goes missing, while Alexandria Steffenson is Sonja, and Sarah, a former lover, who has forgotten Nick.

All four performers deliver outstanding performances, with distinct and different characterizations for each of their roles, and stellar delivery of dialogue.

The show looks beautiful on Fiona Bruce’s precise, understated set, where the bulk of furnishings are elegantly flown into position.

This play, which forms the basis of the film Lantana, is very strong in this original form. Consciously theatrical and expertly directed, this is a show that makes you think, while admiring the skill of the production team. Well worth seeing.

Kimberley Shaw

Photographer: Daniel J Grant