Lucky
Company: IPAN and The Spare Room
Venue: New Theatre, Newtown, Sydney
Dates: to 22 October 2011
Needs a lucky break
Lucky
by Ferenc Alexander Zavaros, attempts to tackle issues surrounding one
of the pressing issues occupying the Australian government and its
citizens today, that of the boat people refugee, and is entirely
'worthy' in its intentions. Unfortunately, the production at hand is
not very interesting and presents itself as a potential, emerging work
in the theatre rather than one that one must see. It is in development
and may be best exposed as a workshop - interesting as part of a Fringe
festival for developing work but not ready to touted to full paying
audiences.
The text is fairly dull and utterly predictable, both in
plot and
character, in a quasi poetical form - relentlessly repetitive. The
writing has no forward movement, it is staggeringly static, and fails
to engage the audience with any real original observation or singular
point of view in its content and subject matter.
This poor text is then wrapped in some contemporary theatrical
production conceits: the sound artists - (composer, singer, Joseph
Nezeti; singer, Conrad Le Bron) revealed and lit on stage
with the ubiquitous presence of the laptop computer and live
micro-phoned voices; a movable platform, nicely painted, acting as a
raft - a raft being the last thing, I would venture on to seek asylum
across the seas - disaster assured, I should think (set design, Sama Ky
Balsom); pretty lighting that gives a romantic stylised 'art-directed'
feel to the project - no grit or threat here (lighting, Ross Graham);
banal shadow work projected by back lighting onto cloth hangings and a
further 'groovy' physical-theatre approach to provide images
through choreography and suspension of performers, by having them
hang off ropes and rigging, entwined in images of
counter-balancing techniques that have the appearance of a
craft not yet achieved - labour intensive in presentation
(collaborative movement director, Kirk Page).
The production cannot camouflage the short comings of the writing. All
of these contributions (Performers: Guy Simon, Hoa X, Drew Wilson) to
the production are very raw and nowhere convincing enough to help us
appreciate the objectives of this work either as art or politics. The
director, Sama Ky Balsom, and her fellow collaborators do not have the
skills to convince us to suspend judgement of the play or the
production. It is all potential and nowhere kinetic enough to demand or
hold our attention as yet.
IPAN Productions states as its aims "to create a broader global
community for the performing arts, to connect creative and production
members to projects and raise community and cultural awareness through
the arts." Lofty ideals accompanied by ill equipped skills will not
attract an audience of wide support. The politics and the art will
founder by not being seen or heard.
The Spare Room curators need to be more rigorous to maintain the
standard they are setting to hold the attention and loyalty of their
audience.
Kevin Jackson
To read more of Kevin Jackson's theatre reviews, check out his blog at Kevin Jackson's Theatre Reviews.