What happens when art imitates life? In the wake of recent tragedies in America, The Events, written by David Greig, has been staged at what many could only describe as the most opportune time, as a performance that not only details the deadly shooting of innocent victims, but the truth that those survivors are left wanting of, now more than ever, it hits close to home. It’s a compelling story matched with a seminal production, full of merit, and however tragic, the narrative is all together topical, and needing of telling.
The two performers- Catherine McClements playing the role of Claire, the young priest central to the story and Johnny Carr playing not only the role of “the boy” but all other characters, give impressively to their characters. Having Carr play multiple roles is mostly successful, what ever confusion surrounding this choice soon gives out as the performance graphically unfolds, in time this choice recreates how as the survivor, the image of the perpetrator can seep into every facet and face that surrounds. PTSD is something that many theatrical productions fail in truthfully illustrating, but here it’s a subject that is delicately skirted around, the one thing that remains unspoken. Through this approach, the emotional and personal ramifications of being a survivor are re-told perfectly. The direction given by Clare Watson, allowed for a sense of unpolished finesse to really come through, with so many main stage productions, seemingly polished to within an inch of their life, choosing this has really helped in further creating a bleak, truthful and uncompromising retelling of society in the here and now.
The Events is a performance underpinned at all times by the accompany of a choir, an addition that helps to further blur the lines between reality and that which is imposed, on each night of the Melbourne season, a different community group will feature. It’s an interesting mechanism to set at play, one that give a further sense of liveliness and immersion. The ensemble added to this performance not only in voice and size but under the careful guise of musical director Luke Byrne, they also breathed life into the work..
Though at times, this performance did borders on farce, regardless of if this approach was an intentional one aimed at providing humor, unfortunately the resulting effect meant some scenes came across as culturally insensitive. More accurate research could of alleviated any of these less than perfect moments and in turn allowed this performance to reach an even greater sense of fluidity and connectedness.
Beautifully lit, the subtle shifts helped in fostering a deeper sense of immersion between the audience and performance, also drawing each individual element of this narrative inwardly. Its rare that production elements such as lighting, so integral yet so oft taken for granted, however faultless, help unify a performance in a such distinct way, but the work Geoff Cobham, has done just this.
All in all, The Events, is a must see, either for it’s ability to communicate issues of the here and now in a manner that is easily communicable, without shying away from the devastation, or for the simple fact that this is first class theatre, it plays at The Malthouse Theatre until July 10th book your tickets here
