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| Photo by Shelly Higgs |
“War of the Worlds + Tourmaline”, Street
Theatre, July 7-8. Reviewed by Phillip Mackenzie
IN recent
months Canberra audiences have seen a number of stage adaptations of short
stories and novels, giving rise to a debate as to the extent to which such
versions must adhere to the details of the originals.
Here, the
process goes one step further, with Howard E Koch’s radio adaptation of HG
Wells’ “War of the Worlds” being itself adapted as a radio play on stage, while
sticking faithfully to Koch’s original text. But on the other hand Emma
Gibson’s version of Randolph Stow’s “Tourmaline”, in dispensing with Stow’s
connecting narration, loses something of the original in a tangle of
ill-fitting episodes.
This
program fits within the Street’s commendable contribution to the development of
the skills of local theatrical aspirants. As such, these two pieces, while as
different as chalk and cheese in conception and execution, promised an
entertaining and interesting evening of theatre.
“War of
the Worlds” is a well-known radio-drama adaptation of H G Wells’ original story
of the invasion of Planet Earth by Martians; “Tourmaline” is Randolph Stow’s
somewhat more cerebral story of the death of a once-flourishing township in the
encroaching Western Australian desert in a world premiere adaptation for stage
by Canberra-based playwright Emma Gibson. Direction is by PJ Williams and Adam
Broinowski. The two pieces are here performed by an ensemble of versatile
actors (Craig Alexander, Ylaria Rogers, Cameron Thomas, Christopher S Carroll,
Breanna Barker and Martin Searles) in a range of characters too varied for this
reviewer to identify individually. Design is by Kyle Sheedy, Linda Buck and
Tiffany Abbott.
Both
scripts are promoted as radio plays and I might have been encouraged to think
this would be an archeological restoration of an art form which no longer
exists, but in which the audience could close its collective eyes and imagine
their own version of the mise-en-scene. Alas, this was not to be.
“War of
the Worlds” comes closer to this ideal, with most of the sound FX being
provided by the Foley man, but with the actors moving around between mics as if
the (radio) audience could see the relationship between characters. In “Tourmaline”,
however, the actors are fully and literally costumed as their characters, given
props and required to create most of their relevant sound effects and to act
out choreographed fights and other physical exchanges.
This
style of presentation bears little resemblance to the way radio drama was
presented, and diluted the impact the material might have had on the audience.
This
transliteration of what has come to be identified as the Welles play to stage
had the advantage of a well-established story-line but still strayed outside
the bounds of the radio play genre; American accents were well-sustained and
went some way to evoke the hysteria which allegedly swept America when first
broadcast – even if Orson Welles (aged 24 at the time) is portrayed as a middle-aged
Welles. While this portrayal is convincing, it detracts from an understanding
of Welles as the enfant terrible of the American performing arts at the time.
The same actor, in the additional role of an American politician seeking to
instil fortitude into the fictional population, lapsed once or twice into
Churchillian cadences.
“Tourmaline”
has difficulty dealing with a somewhat more complex and ethereal, if real-life,
subject than an invasion of extraterrestrials; here the terminally
drought-stricken town is visited by an itinerant water diviner who is elevated
by the surviving townspeople to the status of saviour, a role he cannot fulfil.
The script is more suited as the basis for a full-blown stage play and its
presentation here goes far beyond the radio play concept, producing a hybrid
form of “radio/theatre” which, however effectively played by the actors,
satisfies the demands and expectations of neither of its component parts.
This review first appeared at citynews.com.au on July 9, 2018.