THEATRE: THE DISTANCE FROM HERE
American playwright Tim LaBute is, in his own words, ‘looking to pick a fight’. In this early work, LaBute presents us with an animal enclosure: a bleak vision of impotent American youth trapped in their poverty and memory, without the vision or desire to escape.
Darrell and Tim are teenagers who spend most of their time at the zoo, the mall or the parking lot. Their families have little awareness or concern for their sons. Years of neglect and violence have left an imprint, and the sharp ascension towards disaster feels inevitable. When jealous Darren discovers his girlfriend’s darkest secret, nothing can prevent his savage destruction.
The beauty, but also the challenge, of this work is that almost everything the audience needs to know is evident in the first scene. Here the connection between humans and animals is made explicit, and Darrell and Tim’s contempt for the caged monkeys at their local zoo resounds with fateful irony.
While director John Sheedy does successfully frame moments of LaBute’s casual poignance, he ultimately fails to give this play the sense of agonising momentum that it deserves. Instead, this production feels like an episode of Jerry Springer, disconnected from the source and denied its power.
Until 25 April. SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod Street, Kings Cross. $15-30, 8002 4772, www.griffintheatre.com.au
