THEATRE: QUACK
It’s not often you see a zombie on stage. The horror genre got swallowed whole by the advent of the silver screen – and perhaps for good reason. Its otherworldly overtones and bloody history, its cast of devils and demons, she-wolves and succubi, melded perfectly with the trickery of special effects and post-production. It’s not that our imagination was lacking; more so that the splendours of the cinema so enhanced it. Why, then, has Griffin brought us a play about 19th century flesh-eaters in rural Australia? Quack, the very mutated quasi-historical account of an epidemic that broke out in Broken Hill, its obsession with mining and money and the charlatan doctors plying the trade of ignorance, is an unusual tale; both because of its subject matter, and because it’s being told at all. Like many supernatural stories, it’s an analogy for a greater evil. The perverse and retrograde past is a throwback to conservative politics; humans become contaminated with the hunger to consume, consume, consume; only a woman can lead us forward. Fanny (Aimee Horner), despite having a bung eye and ‘antics’, is the only one capable of being ‘fair dinkum’. Quack doctor Waterman (Charlie Garber) spouts all kinds of philosophies (read; policies), of “Science and the light,” but ends up being weak-kneed and pathetic. Mother Nancy (Jeanette Cronin) is a narrow-minded idealist – in one rather obvious homage she breaks down and begs that the boats be sent back. As the situation goes from bad to worse, gore spills heartily onto the stage, (at one point it threatens to sully a nice suit in the front row) as if writer Ian Wilding and director Chris Mead are saying, look! You can’t get away from this! And you can’t. Quack is unsettling, and literally gut-wrenching. But at the end, despite the well-crafted language, the convincing Australiana, the superb performances, you are left wondering why. Is it wrong that I would’ve preferred this at my local cinema? Perhaps. But there it is – a diagnosis of our times.
Until Oct 2, Griffin SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Darlinghurst, $26-45, 8002 4772, griffintheatre.com.au
