Life can serve up horrors that, no matter how much one tries, one is never able to recover from. Many survivors of the Holocaust bore guilt for the remainder of their lives, that they survived whilst other members of the family perished.
The premise that flows from Hilary Bell’s new play THE SPLINTER is that families, where a child goes missing, suffer a similar terrible fate, whether their child is eventually found or not. Something in the mind, the spirit, has snapped, a basic trust in life has been lost forever.
Helen and Erik Thomsen play a happily married couple whose lives are completely turned around when their six year old daughter, Laura, suddenly goes missing.
For eight months the parents live a living hell, not knowing their child’s fate. The wife somehow manages to hold herself together whilst the husband is unraveling.
Then one day, inexplicably, their girl returns. At first, they are beside themselves with joy. This joy, however, doesn’t last. Their daughter doesn’t behave in the same way that she used to. A splinter of doubt takes hold in the father’s mind, maybe she isn’t really Lucy, maybe she has been swapped with another child, perhaps she is a changeling?!
Director Sarah Goodes, together with the playwright, come up with an atmospheric production with many striking moments. Text takes back stage to the use of many other theatrical effects to convey this haunting play. Dominating the theatrical effects is the use of Banraku puppets, a Japanese form of puppetry that does not conceal the puppets.
All the peformances are strong…Helen and Erik Thomson in the leads, and Julia Ohannessian and Kate Worley as two Laura, as well as being manipulators of the puppets.
Sarah Goodes’s production of Hilary Bell’s THE SPLINTER opened at Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company on Wednesday 15th August and plays until Saturday 15th September, 2012.
© David Kary
21st August, 2012.
Tags: Sydney Theatre Review- THE SPLINTER, Hilary Bell, Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1 Theatre, Sarah Goodes, Helen Thomsen, Erik Thomsen, JUlia Ohannesian, Kate Worsley, Brett Boardman, Sydney Arts Guide.