CONFRONTING THE VIRTUES AND VICES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS |
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) photo: Stephen A'Court By HANNIE RAYSON Directed by BRUCE PHILLIPS CIRCA THEATRE at Circa One, Wellington From 17 Mar 2007 to 21 Apr 2007 [2 hrs 20 mins, one interval] Reviewed by John Smythe, 18 Mar 2007 |
Compared to Australia, New Zealand has greater compassion for refugees and asylum-seekers. We are better exponents of human rights and social justice. Oh, except for Ahmed Zaoui, of course. Not to mention all those questionable criminal convictions, and failures to convict, that continue to haunt our headlines ... But they are other stories.
When Hannie Rayson's Two Brothers, commissioned by the Melbourne Theatre Company, opened two years ago, feature writers (not theatre critics) in the mainstream press vilified it as a smug, hate-filled, conspiracy-theory-driven failure to be the documentary it never claimed to be. Extraordinary vitriol was poured on Rayson. And audiences in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra flocked to see what the fuss was about, as well as heed the warning and/or salve their collective guilty conscience. [If you go to Alison Croggon's Theatre Notes, you will be able to access most of that commentary.]
Let us be clear, then, that although Rayson builds her 'what if' scenario on the basis of actual events and the public figures involved, the play and its characters are fiction. Two Brothers is a cautionary tale set in a future that is all too foreseeable - or a parallel universe that is all too probable - given the fear-based, anti-Muslim asylum-seeker policies the incumbent Australian government peddled as it (successfully) sought re-election in 2001.
The initial focus was on the notorious Tampa incident (in August 2001 more than 400 asylum seekers were rescued from the sinking boat and arrested. NZ took 187, the rest were incarcerated on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea ...). But it was the subsequent Senate Enquiry - where PM John Howard's vote-winning "children overboard" claims were found to be fabricated - that raised more serious questions about the 19th October 2001 death by drowning of 353 people when an Indonesian boat, known to Australian officials as SIEV X (Suspected Illegal Entry Vehicle X), sank within Australia's border protection surveillance zone.
Whether the Australian navy was there and could have saved those lives remains open to conjecture. Rayson's play asserts that such an event could occur if an ambitious government minister, unwilling to face another Tampa-like storm, ordered the navy to turn away from its maritime responsibilities.
As Rayson puts it: "The character of 'Eggs' Benedict shows us who we may become if we allow fear and intolerance to make us indifferent to human suffering. My play is a vision of what the future may be like if people of goodwill - on all sides of politics - do not win the day." (This is quoted in Circa's media release but not in their programme.)
The brothers of the title are James 'Eggs' Benedict (Roger Oakley), the Minister for Security, and Tom Benedict (Nick Blake), head of a charitable foundation and a refugee advocate. The dark satirical drama is largely played out amid and between members of the brothers' families.
In microcosm of what is to follow, the play opens with a man arriving at a beach house to be confronted by a stranger, who accuses the man of killing his family. The man kills the 'intruder' in self-defence.
By the time this scene recurs in the linear structure of the narrative, just before interval, we know the 'intruder' is Iraqi asylum-seeker Hazem Al Ayad (James Ashcroft), who had left a refugee camp in Australia to meet his family in Indonesia and bring them back. They were on the boat that sank on Christmas Day, he was the only survivor, and Tom has been his advocate. And back then, amid the families' Christmas festivities at the beach house, 'Eggs' took a phone call about the incident.
We also know the Minister's wife Fiona (Jennifer Ludlam) is playing the dutiful wife in a loveless marriage, their son Marty died of a drug overdose 2 ½ years ago, and their other son Lachlan (Arthur Meek) is in the Royal Australian Navy. He took part in an earlier refugee rescue effort, was on the ship that saw the stricken vessel in question sink, he appealed to his father direct, by phone, and he is now conscience-stricken about it but sworn to silence, of course.
'Eggs' and 'Fi' have been seeing a therapist (Rachel More) at Fiona's insistence, and 'Eggs' has also being seeing more than he should of his private secretary, Jamie Savage (Carol Smith).
Meanwhile Tom and his Greek wife Angela Sidoropoulos (Sylvia Rands), a high- school teacher and expert in Mediterranean cuisine, are actively involved with the refugee community. Their unemployed architect son Harry (Martyn Wood) is a credit-card delinquent and into drugs, and Tom - who makes chemical-free but undrinkable home brew - is not above blackmailing his brother to get Hazem's residency through.
The pre-interval climax brings the brothers face-to-face over the question of what has happened to Hazem. The second half tests the man-who-would-be Prime Minister's resolve in keeping his eye on the main prize by doing whatever it takes to keep his family and his brother's family from blowing it.
In this 'Eggs' is more Iago than Macbeth, although Jamie, as his 'evil genius', is every bit as ruthless as Lady M. The difference is they don't get their come-uppance. While the classics of old reassure us that evil will be punished and good will prevail, Rayson offers us no such sanctuary. Instead we get to contemplate what we might do in the shoes of Lachlan, Fiona, Tom, Angela and Harry.
Two Brothers, then, is a political thriller that weaves a complex web of deceits and conceits, pros and cons, moral dilemmas and human frailties in order dissect the anatomy of 'evil' as practiced within the politics of fear, loyalty, ambition, self interest ... and apathy. And lest we Kiwis feel too smug in comparing ourselves to the Aussies, there is a moment when Hazem's affiliations are brought into question, for politically expedient reasons, that confronts us squarely with the Ahmed Zaoui question.
The play's many scenes in various locations around Melbourne, in Canberra and at the beach house at Warramee, pose a staging challenge that is splendidly met by director Bruce Phillips on John Hodgkins' verandah-like setting with rattan blinds - that ironically evoke the very cultures 'White Australia' would prefer to keep at bay - lit with subtle precision by Jennifer Lal.
All the actors bring human truth to their characters. James Ashcroft ensures we understand Hazem clearly, while Carol Smith allows us no opportunity to shrug off Jamie as a cipher.
Roger Oakley's 'Eggs' is all too credible, even in the moments we will him to soften. Jennifer Ludlam likewise makes Fiona's choices painfully believable.
Arthur Meek hits his emotional marks at every swell and trough of his voyage to 'manhood, while Martyn Woods epitomises Harry's lack of maturity exactly. Nick Blake shares Tom's dilemmas to sobering effect. Sylvia Rands' Angela jabs at the status quo with quiet jibes.
And Rachel More - who also stage manages all the cues, blinds and props - completes the cast with her well focused and selfless Therapist.
Yet I come away feeling less engaged than I wanted to be. Given we lack the direct connection Australian audiences must have felt to the political content, I can't help but wonder if the crucial moments of choice for each of the characters could not pack greater punches for us. And I think that might happen as the cast move on from explaining the story to us (as I sense is their aim), to inhabiting their warts-and-all roles more totally and letting the story speak for itself - which in turn may liberate some of the dry Aussie humour I suspect may lurk within this play.
While Two Brothers was clearly written from a sense of outrage, passion and compassion, its purpose is not served through earnestness. It is written as a thriller and the production needs to find that thrill factor, not least by giving us the thrill of self recognition.
That said - and at the risk of sounding too earnest myself - Circa must be congratulated for bringing us such a politically relevant play at a time when the virtues and vices of the democratic process - and the roles and responsibilities we each have within it - are under such scrutiny world-wide.
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See also reviews by:
Laurie Atkinson (The Dominion Post);
Lynn Freeman (Capital Times);
Melody Nixon (The Lumiere Reader);