Review by Alison Stoddart
In the aptly named Flight Path Theatre on a balmy February Saturday night in Marrickville a convivial crowd of patrons generated a buzz of excitement in the bar before the performance of Turpentine. This theatre, part of the Addison Road Community Centre, is a welcoming space with the bar area that is a mix of homely lounge room comfort and funky bar vibe.
The doorway into the theatre was obscured by a heavy curtain and smoke creating a gothic vibe was swirling as the audience took their seats. The set was effective yet minimal in its design, with props to establish the scene as a 19th century doctor’s surgery. This debut production by Australian playwright Tommy James Green is set in 1887 London where a woman, Cynthia, tries desperately to revive her dead seven-year-old son Tiberius, with the help of her brother Percy (a mute who, unsurprisingly, eventually speaks). They bring the child’s lifeless body to the surgery of Dr Crow, a hopeless lush addicted to his gin still and where he continuously tops up his glass. The addition of the mystique, French woman Dominique who undoubtedly is there to turn the spotlight on Cynthia, Percy and Dr Crow’s indiscretions. ‘I know those tears, I’ve shed them too’ she insightfully imparts to a crying Cynthia. With elements reminiscent of Frankenstein, the story bring themes of grief, loss and importantly, guilt.
The defining of the characters, or lack of, makes it difficult to connect to them and follow the numerous backstories. The play is very dialogue heavy with a lot of emphasis on delivery. Shrieking, cursing and throwing themselves about might be immersive for the actors but there comes a time in any production where the narrative has to shine through. Eventually the audience is owed the courtesy of being told the story, with one idea or theme being the basis, something that the arc is built around and returned to repeatedly. Turpentine seems to lack this, with the result that there is too much going on.
Watching the slow inebriation of the doctor, the lusty antics of Dominique, the revealing of mute Percy as a killer and Tiberius as a corpse most of the play, eventually resulting in the pay off with his return to life and divulgence of secrets.
The lighting is a bit hit and miss, with flickering lights and thunderous sounds to indicate the raging storm outside often muffling the actors’ voices. With the gothic genre, lighting goes a long way to creating mood but unfortunately lacked that aspect here.
Put simply, Turpentine is an ambitious project that perhaps is caught in its own trap of too much ventured in too small a narrative space.
