We Keep Everything

To be truly objective about the world premiere performance of Lisa Pellegrino’s journey through her family archives, I will shine the spotlight on ‘the elephant in the room’ and declare, upfront, that none of this should have worked. Television, for one, is littered with earnest ‘who do you think you are’ family secret discovery travelogues, that blend ancestry with the seemingly requisite combination of voyeurism and vaudeville.

And then there is ancestry.com – a rabbit hole to effortlessly rival the one Alice fell down – where days … weeks … months, in fact, can be spent grappling with the little green ‘hint’ leaf icons, and the hypnotic and compelling wonder and mystery of exploring our bloodlines.

“Family”, Pellegrino tells us in her program notes, “… can mean so many things to different people. The family you’re born into, the family you choose, the one you create, your community, your friends. Those you love and the memories you hold dear are with you always. So take the time to listen deeply to stories, find out about the people you call home and take them with you as you travel down the oceans of your past through to the rivers of the now. And so on and so on and so on …”.

The conundrum when it comes to individual experiences of how one frames and experiences ‘family’, however, is far more complicated. With the exception of a tremendously excited packing box that wriggles with a desperation to be opened (but which Pellegrino refuses to), Pellegrino’s journey through the influence – past and present – of ‘family’ on her life is quintessentially positive. This, with the exception of whatever the contents of the over-excited packing box were, is a trauma-free work – powered instead by romance, courage, determination, music, faith, luck, hard work, Fate, and food.

That it doesn’t end up derailed by the threat of its ever-present sentimentality is the result of Pellegrino’s effervescence as an undeniably charismatic and generous performer, and the astonishing level of creative intelligence and skill that the creatives assembled here share in delivering the work to the unforgiving Brown’s Mart Theatre stage.

Dramaturgs Roslyn Oades and Mary Anne Butler have masterfully incised the epic source material that spans continents, oceans, borders, and languages, shaping the script into a whip-cracking sharp monologue that lives and breathes as the perfect example of knowing when enough is enough. Sulan expertly shapes the entire performance with a rare, insightful, and illuminating economy, while Barrie’s functional and incredibly versatile set serves the work brilliantly at every turn. But it is the stunning coup de théâtre when Barrie’s set – in concert with Lydiard and Cunliffe’s lighting, soundscape, and projections – comes alive that is the showstopper. Redefining the possibilities of magic realism in the Theatre, this dazzling sequence elevates the performance from an engaging meander through time and place to a spectacular theatrical experience.

But just when you thought you might have wandered into Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ by mistake, Sulan delivers the work’s true and complete masterstroke, as Pellegrino begins to unpack some of the packing boxes, suitcases, and carry-alls. This long, wordless, and almost ritualistic sequence is the most beautifully grounded and deeply affecting moment of the night. Almost miraculously, props and artefacts – described in loving, almost reverential detail earlier – are laid out on the floor in an ever expanding, shrine-like arrangement. Like memories, the objects collide, scatter, decorate, punctuate, integrate, overlap, and rest … as though they had been touched by Angels.

The real gift here is the power of the honesty of this work to deeply affect the way we might reflect on our own memories – vastly different or eerily similar as they may be. To share time in the dark in heartfelt and judgment-free reflection, affection, joy, and authenticity ultimately shines a guiding light along the pathways and bridges to be crossed in our own journeys through the memories of our own lifetimes.

— Geoffrey Williams

Pictured: Lisa Pellegrino in ‘We Keep Everything’. Photograph by Paz Tassone.

Geoffrey has been a theatre writer and reviewer for over 30 years and was also the film reviewer for the West Australian Newspaper Group for six years. You can read his review of ‘Fair Punishment’ at Brown’s Mart here:
https://www.stagewhispers.com.au/reviews/fair-punishment