Mothersmilk
By Joanne Trentini
Presented by One Other
Productions
Directed by Claire Phillips
Producer and Set Designer -
Kathryn Hooper
Producer and Creative Stylist
– Renee Trentini
Actors – Joanne Trentini,
Lelia Rodgers, Gerard Lane and Stefan Bramble
Live Music – Earthwire: A J Winnick, Cloud Unknowing and Nick
Hadjelias
45 Downstairs – 45 Flinders
Lane
31 October to 11 November
With its beguiling,
beautifully produced flyer, superb photo on the program and lovely little
filmic scene of a young boy being given a toxic glass of milk to drink it is
bemusing that this production of a supposedly new play is not billed as a
reworking of Medea. It would make sense
as the basic story is the same and there always seems to be an enthusiastic
audience for reworked classics.
There are problems with just
about all the elements of this production and I think they can all be traced
back to not being clear about the context of the whole. The script is repetitive, yet it is not
entirely clear who each of the characters are, the acting is at times
monotonous, the lighting messy and dull and the music although initially very
promising and strong - often intrudes, upon rather than underscore and supports,
the acting.
There is quite obviously not
a true sense of ensemble pervading this work.
The direction lacks clarity and many opportunities have been missed and
the work drags. Basically the whole
falls in an out of being monotonous rhythmically and vocally. That is not to say that talent isn’t there
and that all actors can surely and probably will do better as the season
progresses.
And there is something in the
writing – it just hasn’t come through onto the rehearsal room floor and
therefore is illusive in the production.
In my experience writers performing in their own work are seldom
successful. In this instance it is the
writing that suffers not the performance.
Joanne Trentini is a strong and stunning stage presence but her writing
is in need of dramaturgical work to bring out the ideas she says in the program that she is discussing.
Much of the characterization
seems non-specific and actors are often not really talking with each other
indeed they are barely working with each other at times.
My guess is that creative
roles have not been clearly enough defined, and the rehearsal time has not been
adequate to workshop some of the disturbing and complex ideas explored.
Suzanne Sandow
(For Stage Whispers)
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