THEATRE: DON’T SAY THE WORDS

REWIEW BY WYATT MOSS-WELLINGTON

Australian playwright Tom Holloway alleges his latest play Don’t Say the Words is inspired by Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. It takes the bare bones of that story, however ‘ a war veteran returning home to a wife having an affair with his cousin ‘ and sits indolently on this microcosm of violent interpersonal drama.

Thus we enter an hour and fifteen minutes of a woman recounting her experience of domestic abuse and murdering her husband. Lion’s share of the play is taken up with broken clock dialogue ‘ repeated phrases, heavy-handed drumbeat of a few symbolic words, constant revision of ground already covered with emotionally alienating third person delivery. This trendy stylization, however, has the unfortunate effect of hiding the fact that a playwright has little to say.

An unrelated narrative about a sheep introduced at the very end reveals a diminutive remark the playwright hoped to introduce: that daydreams of violent revenge do not confirm our identity as a brute; there is difference between thinking and doing. Otherwise, it’s a large dose of familiar declarations on the way in which love and violence co-exist, at the same time revealing a patronising attitude toward Australian working class maleness. Grotesque caricatures of the working class, however, appear to be the Australian way. I hope one day we find our way out of this mire.

Performers Jack Finsterer and Brett Stiller do manage to pull some charged moments out of a single scene together ‘ a narrative tangent providing some relief from the recurrent talk of beatings. Scenes with Anna Lise Phillips don’t share the same level of character engagement, although some attractive Days of our Lives tableaux and mood lighting with cigarette smoke hold atmosphere.

Loud noises and dirty water splashed about the stage complete a milieu of convincingly gut-churning squalor. But the squalor doesn’t make sense in the circumstances of the play, seeming to be the hand of a director (newcomer Matthew Lutton, a young rising star from Perth) seeking to dress up a text with higher aspirations to imparting an absent truth.

I haven’t much more time for playwrights hiding behind unenlightening symbolism. Surely, the theatre is a place for bold new ideas, but we can’t expect violent subject matter will simply do the work for us. We need a little insight.

Don’t Say the Words
Griffin Theatre Company
SBW Stables Theatre
10 Nimrod Street, Kings Cross
June 27 ‘ July 26
Tickets: $32-$43, 1300 306 776 or www.griffintheatre.com.au