Motortown by Simon Stephens
November 30th 2011 20:59
Motortown by Simon Stephens
This production directed by Paulo Castro with Second Year Acting students from AC Arts: Michael Lemmer, David Andri, Tess Fowler, Michaela Black, Jhon Bedoya, Jason Marsiglia and Romina Verdiglione.
This production directed by Paulo Castro with Second Year Acting students from AC Arts: Michael Lemmer, David Andri, Tess Fowler, Michaela Black, Jhon Bedoya, Jason Marsiglia and Romina Verdiglione.
Away from its origins in the United Kingdom, stripped of those dark qualities to be found in the likes of Joe Orton, Ken Russell, Anthony Burgess or Peter Cook and Dudley Moore the scathing sarcasm and unnerving “Pip pip tally-ho,” aftershock of a slackened stiff upper lip doesn’t quite manage to translate all the way into antipodeans’ vernacular or lilt, however Simon Stephens’ radical play dealing with post traumatic stress syndrome in a returned soldier MOTORTOWN still packs a solid punch even if the Australian accents are completely wrong.
The small ensemble of second year acting students at AC Arts, directed by Paulo Castro, manage to keep the story significant by pitching their energies sharply and overarching the abyss. No one is to blame here except war, even though the slow learning paedophile brother and his traumatised ex-war zone doppelganger hero have dirtied the same black market pistol with their hands searching for love, a hard real, graspable object that reliably goes off in the dark or at least ejaculates like a killer it is all in the name of a hero who finds his expectations undermined by the real nonchalance of the burning home fires.
His high school sweetheart abandons him and so he lunges towards the closest things he can find and control to seek out resolutions in an unresolvable empire. The great tragedy reflected in the play is very specific to mother England. The polite asides from automatic weapon wielding intruders who are all a bit bent or queer or both makes scant sense when uttered by Australians who are yet to really feel the poignancy of being infiltrated by the infidels they suppressed and colonised back in the day.
That being said, the set and atmosphere contributed by the production team of Manda Webber, Rodeo and Ben Flett combined with the consistently solid second-year ensemble, manages to get several points across without too much time wasted. Some of the grand theatrical moments realised by Castro could do with tightening up, but ultimately it works as a parable attempting to discourage abandoning those men who lay down their hopes and dreams by fighting with a conceptual enemy in a world sadly lacking in new ideas.
Reviewed by David Jobling.
The small ensemble of second year acting students at AC Arts, directed by Paulo Castro, manage to keep the story significant by pitching their energies sharply and overarching the abyss. No one is to blame here except war, even though the slow learning paedophile brother and his traumatised ex-war zone doppelganger hero have dirtied the same black market pistol with their hands searching for love, a hard real, graspable object that reliably goes off in the dark or at least ejaculates like a killer it is all in the name of a hero who finds his expectations undermined by the real nonchalance of the burning home fires.
His high school sweetheart abandons him and so he lunges towards the closest things he can find and control to seek out resolutions in an unresolvable empire. The great tragedy reflected in the play is very specific to mother England. The polite asides from automatic weapon wielding intruders who are all a bit bent or queer or both makes scant sense when uttered by Australians who are yet to really feel the poignancy of being infiltrated by the infidels they suppressed and colonised back in the day.
That being said, the set and atmosphere contributed by the production team of Manda Webber, Rodeo and Ben Flett combined with the consistently solid second-year ensemble, manages to get several points across without too much time wasted. Some of the grand theatrical moments realised by Castro could do with tightening up, but ultimately it works as a parable attempting to discourage abandoning those men who lay down their hopes and dreams by fighting with a conceptual enemy in a world sadly lacking in new ideas.
Reviewed by David Jobling.
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David Jobling
