What is the gutsiest, most definitively feminine role an actor can play? The foxy Rosalind? The wily-shrewd Kate? The vaginal-nectarine goddess of war Cleopatra?
Today, a new contender vies to be THE feminine dramatic role an actor would die for the chance to wrestle-with on the stage.
Like Rosalind, she runs rings around the man she baits. Like Kate, she takes the upper hand to get what turns her on by playing the man who thinks he is pulling the strings. Like Cleopatra, she mesmerises the man into painfully becoming, at least on his defeat, utterly renewed.
Her name: Vania Azadi. The play: BLOOD ON THE WATTLE. The author and producer: Geoffrey Sykes.
In days to come, Vania Azadi will be a role which, performed well, will test the actor, and separate the competent performer from the consummate star.
For those fortunate to have been seismically shifted by the premier of this play, actor Befrin Axtjӓrn Jackson is the first and quintessential embodiment of the ultimately incomparable Vania Azadi.
A Morton Bay Figtree is gobsmacking. How dead the soul, that is not moved by sublimity? Yet, without the fertile earth that invigorates its roots, the giant falls flat. Without the ground, there is no foreground.
Take away the thing that subtends – defines the boundaries of – a character, and even the most nectar-dripping role an actor can play, withers on the vine – falls flat on the stage. Just as there can be no light without dark, there can be no Vania Azadi without a Louise Patterson.
Louise Patterson is the character in the play that subtly, yet essentially, lets Vania Azadi become fully alive. Louise Patterson is the safe, tried-and tested, stalwart firmament of conservatism upon which Vania Azadi can renew not only her man, but the whole of his world. No light: no day. No dark: no night. No snug Louise Patterson: no sizzling Vania Azadi.
In Geoffrey Sykes’ production, actor Kloud Milas deftly colours-in for the audience the subtleties of the self-assured, dependable, faithful character of Louise Patterson. A triumph in vividly playing the character that delineates proficient mediocrity sneering down her nose at Vania. She doesn’t come on strong but stays with you long after the fireworks.
Enter the man. Centre of power? Well connected? Well liked by the inner circle? The backbone of the country?
Yes . . . but.
And it’s a gaping but.
But for egocentrism. But for heteronomy. But for self-told lies. But for organised killing . . . he is honourable.
His name: Karl Matters. Karl Matters, like King Lear, enters his abyss to slowly, torturously emerge renewed.
In Geoffrey Sykes’ production, Karl Matters is played by Ken Welsh. As with the roles that Befrin Axtjӓrn Jackson and Kloud Miles play, for those fortunate to have seen his tour-de-force, Ken Welsh embodies the man whose soul is excruciatingly redeemed to resurrect, from the deep pit of politics, the world.
Geoffrey Sykes’ BLOOD ON THE WATTLE had had premiere performances at the Richard Wherrett Studio, ROSLYN PACKER THEATRE on Friday 25 March and Saturday 26 March.
The play now transfers to the Chippen Street Theatre, Level 1, 45 Chippen Street, Chippendale where it will between between Wednesday 30 March to Saturday 9 April, 2022.
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Featured image : Ken Welsh plays Karl Matters in Geoffrey Sykes’ play Blood On the Wattle’.