I have been to two shows over the last week that have been great dramas. Last Wednesday night Arthur Miller’s View From The Bridge, then last Saturday night William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies. As it so happens both these dramas, at their highest ‘pitch’, had the stage completely blacked out.
I was very moved by View From The Bridge. I can’t say that for Lord Of The Flies. I found the Sydney Theatre Company’s production quite cold. I’ve been wondering about why it was that I had such different responses to the two works.
I put it down to staging. The production at the Ensemble had no set to speak of, just one wooden chair. The show relied on the actors to carry it, and they did so wonderfully well.
With the STC production, everywhere you looked there was a stage effect. The use of the stage lights was the dominant effect. They kept on coming down towards and next to the actors being metaphors for the sea and the forest.
I became obsessed with the stage effects and this took away from my engagement with the characters.
Did we need all the ‘left field’ stage effects, especially when most of us are familiar with the story?! Couldn’t the actors have carried the play along with the audience using our own imaginations?!
My verdict. A thumbs down for this production. Director Kip Williams is known for his experimental stage craft. The onstage video work in his production of Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer worked so well. This time the experiment didn’t work for me.
The cast of young actors impressed with their highly energised performances. My production highlight was the great, edgy score by James Brown which was eerie through the whole show.
In his program notes Kip Williams says that he interprets the book/ play as being specifically about toxic masculinity and the damage it can do. Isn’t the play primarily about bullying and power plays that take place between its characters? Women can also bully, even if it is in more subtle ways.
I am not so convinced that Golding’s work simply related to males. I still think Golding’s book had a more universal tone, and inferred that human beings, males and females, can slip out of their civilised skins and become savages when placed in a ‘desperate situation such as in the play.
One only has to look at the Holocaust and see how many women in Germany were in positions of power in the Nazi regime and carried out orders with little or no hesitation. I see that we human beings aren’t so far away from our primal roots when we are placed in very challenging situations. Sorry Kip, for what is worth, I still believe Golding was talking about all of us.
LORD OF THE FLIES is playing the Roslyn Packer Theatre until Saturday 24th August, 2019.
https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au
Featured image – The cast of ‘Lord Of The Flies’. Production photography by Zan Wimberley