A RELATIONSHIP THAT PROVOKES US TO REFLECT ON OUR OWN |
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) Photo: Stephen A'Court by JOANNA MURRAY-SMITH directed by SUSAN WILSON at Circa Two, Wellington From 23 Jan 2010 to 20 Feb 2010 [1hr 30 mins] Reviewed by John Smythe, 24 Jan 2010 |
The ninety-minute time-limit William has put on his meeting with ex-wife Isabel, before he flies back to Paris to marry his German actress-cum-dog-walker fiancée Vera, is both a blessing and a curse in Joanna Murray-Smith’s adroitly crafted Ninety. While it ‘cuts to the chase’, dispensing with exposition (and such niceties as her offering him a drink although she sips a wine from time to time, in this production anyway), it leaves an awful lot of questions unanswered, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Isabel, played by Michele Amas with a contained emotional depth that keeps us guessing throughout as to exactly what she is up to, is an art restorer, working on bringing Flemish painter Jan van Eyck’s portrait of a husband a pregnant wife back to life in preparation for a private sale.
As the ex-acting teacher who has met with success in Hollywood but has yet to authentically embody himself, Andrew Foster makes splendid sense of William’s skills and shortcomings. Thankfully the symbolism of both their vocations is not over-stated.
Abetted by the deft touch of director Susan Wilson, the pair create a variously volatile, simmering and intimately tranquil chemistry that fully validates the nature of their relationship. Designer Ulli Briese’s set and lighting ensures their present encounter is effortlessly merged with their re-experiencing of key moments in their shared past.
The downward pressure the deadline puts on Isabel’s quest to lay the ghost of their five-years-gone marriage, in the face of William’s apparent indifference, infuses the play with a deep vein of dramatic energy. Because the action is driven by her need to make sense of what’s happened, much is left out of the sketched-in bits of back-stories and wider contexts. How, for example, did they relate to their respective extended families? How did he make the leap from being a drama teacher to a Hollywood screen-actor? Surely these things had an effect on their relationship too.
If we took the on-stage action as a summation of their whole relationship, we may be tempted to see Isabel and William as shallow, self-obsessed sybarites intrinsically doomed to never find lasting happiness with anyone, including themselves. But no; from the ‘book’ of their courtship, marriage, breakup and subsequent lives, Murray-Smith has plucked the passages that most encapsulate what they had, and that now raise the questions Isabel wants answered. That said, I can’t help but wonder what she may have cut to ensure the play runs 90 minutes exactly (which it does).
Both characters are adept with words. She uses them to get to the nub and heart of things, although she’s given to sweeping generalisations: “All women want / need / think / feel …” etc. Despite having won a Golden Globe (as a supporting actor, presumably), he avoids connecting with emotional truth in the real world, protecting himself with a witty cynicism. This makes for much verbal comedy of insight and anguish into the nature of male-female relationships (with much focus on sex), not to mention parenting, etc.
There are hints early on about something more profound that they’re not confronting. Our desire to know more is well provoked before it finally comes to the fore, subtly and minimally. And when it does, our understanding of what each of them truly wants and needs changes significantly. To reveal more would be a spoiler. Suffice to say there is resolution and a healing of sorts, which leaves us to ponder whether the way is now clear for their relationship to flourish anew or for them to go their separate ways.
It would be glib for the playwright to offer an answer within the prescribed 90 minutes, and neither she should. While we may conjure with the possibilities of what may happen next, in the shorter or longer terms, the immediate value this production offers is in its provocation to consider the values we bring to our own lives and relationships. A play that does that has got to be good.
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See also reviews by:
Laurie Atkinson (The Dominion Post);
Lynn Freeman (Capital Times);