THEATRE: POOL (NO WATER)
REVIEW BY AMELIA GROOM
The artist’s ego is a fragile one and to ascend above one’s artistic peers can trigger vicious jealousy and contempt. That seems to be the premise for English playwright Mark Ravenhill’s latest, Pool (No Water), the Sydney premiere of which is currently showing at the Darlo Theatre.
Four nameless visual artists (played by Guy Edmonds, Sam Haft, Angela Bauer and Lisa Griffiths) are united in their jealousy of an unseen fifth member of ‘The Group’ who has achieved international fame and affluence far beyond their own.
When she suffers a severe accident and is left in a coma, they quickly capitalise and set about photographing her hospitalised body, with an opportunistic eye to make art out of it. Things take an unexpected turn when she comes back to consciousness, and spiral downhill as the drug-fuelled group seek to sabotage their more talented and successful friend, who remains infuriatingly unfazed by anything they do.
Directed by Anthony Skuse, and marking the third production from theatre group Square the Circle, Pool (No Water) features a minimal set with nothing more than two abstract barricades lit with green lights (the colour of envy) – representing the emotional barriers that exist between people.
The performances are strong and manage to show how vanity, fear, insecurity, self-validation, superiority and inferiority all intersect and co-exist. Focusing on the perils and destructiveness of group mentality, Ravenhill’s script does not prescribe how many characters there should be, nor are the lines assigned to characters. But the production would have benefited from giving the individuals more depth of character – in particular the male characters, who seem to lack distinct personalities entirely. With streams of markedly to-the-point dialogue that move between past and present, perhaps greater interaction between the characters on stage, rather than always delivering directly to the audience, would have helped achieve this.
It’s a darkly amusing take on bohemian circles, and people as a whole come off looking pretty awful. With no characters to warm to or even properly empathise with, we’re left with a very bleak view of humanity. But it’s a play that raises some interesting broad questions surrounding things like art and mortality, art and social responsibility, art and ownership (does the image belong to the creator or the subject’), and art and success (are achievement and credibility mutually exclusive’) Don’t expect to be uplifted, but it’s a production that offers plenty of food for thought.
Pool (No Water)
Until September 20
Darlinghurst Theatre, 19 Greenknowe Avenue, Potts Point
Tickets: $30-$35, 8356 9987 or www.darlinghursttheatre.com
