Written by:
Tom Murphy
 |
| Maeliosa Stafford - Patrick Dickson |
Director:
John O’Hare
Presented by
the Darlinghurst Theatre Company and O’Punsky’s Theatre
Eternity
Playhouse – Sydney until 4th May 2014.
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens
This
production of “The Gigli Concert” provided an opportunity to not only
experience my play by Tom Murphy, considered by many to be Ireland’s greatest
living playwright, but also to make my first visit to one of Sydney’s newest
and cosiest theatres, the Eternity Playhouse in Burton Street, Darlinghurst.
Interestingly,
this is the fourth production of “The Gigli Concert” presented by the
co-producers, O’Punsky’s Theatre. Director,
John O’Hare, and the two male leads, Patrick Dickson and Maeliosa Stafford, have
been involved in all four productions, so I was curious to find out what they
found so compelling about this play.
“The Gigli
Concert” concerns a down-on-his-luck, alcoholic; a quack psychiatrist, JPW King, (Patrick Dickson)
who’s eking out a living conducting consultations in his squalid office/apartment.
Between constant telephone conversations with his wife, King is also having an
on-going affair with a married woman, Mona, (Kim Lewis) on a convertible
sofa-bed in his office. When a
mysterious millionaire Irish businessman (Maeliosa Stafford) walks into his
office demanding King help him sing like the famous Italian tenor, Beniamino
Gigli, his life becomes even more surreal.
According to
John O’Hare in his program notes “There is a Faustian pact in Gigli, to be sure, perhaps more than
one. Who makes it and how it is worked with are endlessly fascinating”. Well, maybe to Mr. O’Hare and his cast, who, by this fourth production, must have a deep knowledge and appreciation of the subtleties of the text, but to this first-time viewer many aspects of the play simply remain obtuse and confusing.
All three
actors give solid ‘actorly’ performances. Throughout the three hours duration
of the play, they deliver their lines in a sort of ‘disconnect’, constantly
talking to each other, but not really communicating. We’re always aware that
they are giving a performance, so we don’t become involved with them as
believable people.
Ambiguous situations
abound. The play commences with the psychiatrist, JPW King listening to a
recording of Gigli, but when his client declares his ambition to sing like
Gigli, King never acknowledges his own fascination with Gigli’s voice. Because conversations
are often drowned out by over-amplified recordings of Gigli, information is
lost. According to the program notes these recordings are carefully stipulated
by the author, but because they are sung in Italian, any significance they have
is lost on the majority of the audience. Towards the end of the play, King
attempts suicide by ingesting handfuls of pills washed down with copious
amounts of vodka. He collapses on the floor apparently in a coma for the
duration of another Gigli aria, but then
awakens, brushes himself down, gathers up a few belongings, and marches
cheerfully out of his apartment into the
‘happily ever after’.
Perhaps this
constant ambiguity is the fascination of the play. In which case, if you like
to leave the theatre puzzling over what you’ve just seen, then perhaps this is
the play for you.
This review appears on the Australian Arts Review website www.artsreview.com.au