The Country
The Sunday Age
Sunday July 31, 2005
WHERE: Red Stitch, St Kilda East. Tel: 9533 8083 WHEN: To August 13 TICKETS: $25/$15 ****
Martin Crimp's The Country was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2000. The Australian premiere of the Denis Moore production of the play is one of the best things Red Stitch has done this year.Corrine (Verity Charlton) and Richard (Dion Mills) are relocated city dwellers; the play opens just after Richard, a doctor, has brought home a woman he has found (Laura Gordon), or claims to have found, unconscious at the side of the road. The mood is middle-class Pinteresque, uneasy, and Crimp's crisp, musical, stylised dialogue casts big shadows; it soon becomes clear that Corrine no longer trusts Richard and that their move to the country is a form of flight, but what they are fleeing from is themselves.The rhythms are brisk and tense, the dialogue overlaps and turns back on itself as the characters turn on each other. Verity Charlton, who made a very vivid impression with a small part earlier in the year at Red Stitch in Playing the Victim (the Japanese Lady with a Past), puts in a notable performance as Corrine, inhabiting her English middle-class brittleness with almost effortless naturalism. Her truthfulness in the part is perfectly judged; taken the wrong way, Crimp's dialogue would simply seem mannered, but Charlton keeps it real, as they say. It's a splendid piece of acting. Dion Mills, by contrast, never quite brings Richard to life. He is a skilled actor but you can see the skill, not the character. Laura Gordon as the girl, Rebecca, carries off her scene with Corrine, the centrepiece of the play, with a credibility to match Charlton's.The Country is a darkly fascinating piece of work; the poetry of the writing and the excellence of the production make it well worth seeing.
© 2005 The Sunday Age