 |
| Liam Jackson (Lord Alfred (Bosie) Douglas - Chris Baldock (Oscar Wilde) |
By David Hare
Directed by Karina Hudson – Set Designed by Karina
Hudson
Lighting designed by Chris Ellyard – Costumes designed
by Anna Senior
Music composed by Thomas Azury – Presented by
Mockingbird Theatre
The Courtyard Studios, Canberra Theatre Centre – 27th
July to 5th August, 2018
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
Mockingbird Theatre, under the Artistic Directorship
of Chris Baldock, is the latest theatre company to emerge on Canberra’s
burgeoning theatrical landscape. The choice of the David Hare play, “The Judas
Kiss”, for its inaugural production is a canny one.
Some years ago, The Canberra Repertory Society presented
“Gross Indecency”, a play by Moises Kaufman dealing with the three trials of
Oscar Wilde resulting from his homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred (Bosie)
Douglas. So the opportunity to experience Hare’s take on the events which
followed these trials, with his play “The Judas Kiss”, which has not previously
had a Canberra production, is welcome, as is the opportunity for Baldock to reprise
his much-praised performance as Oscar Wilde, honed in previous Melbourne
productions of both “The Judas Kiss” and “Gross Indecency”.
Hare’s play focuses on the efforts of Bosie Douglas to
persuade Wilde to stay in London and fight the charges in an effort to salvage
both their reputations, whereas a former lover, now the executor of the rights
to his plays, Robert (Robbie) Ross, wants him to flee London immediately.
Baldock’s performance as Oscar Wilde is indeed
impressively nuanced and thoughtful, though somewhat less flamboyant than
Wilde’s reputation might suggest. He delivers Wilde’s witty ripostes with flair
and authority, and in the static second act, when he’s largely confined to a chair;
his depiction of Wilde’s destructive intransigence is riveting, especially in
the scenes with Robbie Ross, powerfully portrayed by Patrick Galen-Mules.
 |
| Chris Baldock (Oscar Wilde) - Patrick Galen-Mules (Robert Ross) |
There are Impressive performances also from Arran
McKenna as the hotel manager, and Meaghan Stewart and Cole Hilder as the maid
and waiter, all of whom manage to be interesting, even when spending long
periods in the first act simply standing and observing. Stewart and Hilder also
manage their well-staged nude scene at the beginning of the play with admirable
aplomb.
Charged with a similar task at the beginning of Act 2,
when he is required, as Bosie’s sailor pick-up, to play almost
his entire scene naked, Benjamin Balte Russell manages to achieve considerable
impact by investing his character with captivating Mediterranean insolence.
Liam Jackson is much less convincing as Lord Alfred
‘Bosie’ Douglas, the object of Wilde’s affections and the reason for his
downfall. Though he looks well, scowls, poses and delivers his lines
efficiently, Jackson has not yet the presence or demeanor to convince that he
is the product of an aristocratic upbringing or indeed, the poet he keeps insisting he is. His interactions
with Wilde come across as mere petulance, and lack the chemistry necessary to
convince that Wilde is sufficiently captivated by him to abandon his career.
“The Judas Kiss” is the first main-stage production by
Karina Hudson, a recent graduate of the Mockingbird Acting Studio’s directing
course. It’s a challenging, wordy play, with potentially static scenes which
present significant challenges for any director. Hudson copes with these
challenges well, drawing good performances from her actors, but overlooking
small details which potentially draw the viewer out of the play.
Even though the venue is intimate, the actors still
have to project their voices, and surely wealthy aristocrats would wear
polished shoes. What hotel manager worth his salt would allow his maid to
bring un-ironed serviettes into the room and fold them in front of the guests?
In addition to directing, Hudson also designed the
settings for this production, which, even
taking budget limitations into account, contain ambiguous elements which
often work against the effectiveness of her production.
Hare has set the first act of his play in an
upper-class London hotel in 1895 with Wilde, at the peak of his notoriety,
being attended by the hotel manager and two of his staff. They provide silver
service for Wilde and his guests. For this
scene Hudson has the walls draped with untidily hung, drab white calico. A large
gilt frame hangs in the middle of the back wall with a suspended
light on either side. Antique furniture, including a chaise lounge, floor rugs
and other props decorate the stage, but any sense of opulence is dispelled by
the dreary white calico.
For the second act, set in a rat-infested hotel in Naples,
most of the first-act furniture and props are removed and the floor rugs are
replaced by raffia mats. But inexplicably and most distractingly, the calico
drapes, chaise lounge, gilt frame and lights, remain, even though the action is
meant to be taking place in a different country and different hotel.
According to the program notes, Mockingbird Theatre’s admiral
ambition is to present the best text-based contemporary and classic plays from
around the world. Hopefully it will also aim to present these texts in settings
which enhance rather than distract from them.
Photos by Brenton Cleaves
This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au
