Language Wins In Dramatic Tussle
The Age
Tuesday October 10, 2006
THEATRE REVIEW: CRESTFALL, By Mark O'Rowe, Red Stitch Actors Theatre, until November 4. Running time: 75 minutes
ONE of the highlights of Red Stitch's inaugural season in 2002 was Howie the Rookie, a breathtaking ride through Dublin's seedy side by Irish playwright Mark O'Rowe. In Crestfall (2002), O'Rowe shifts his locale to a nameless Irish town, described in depressing tones as "this insidious vicinity, this savage quarter, this perpetual crestfall".A simple structure of three monologues narrates a litany of prostitution, sadism, bestiality and murder, in which the lasting images are a bloated horse wrapped in barbed wire floating down a river, and a woman being coerced into performing oral sex on a dog. It all ends in an orgy of vengeance worthy of The Spanish Tragedy.Plainly, Crestfall is a study in abjection, of people who have lost their sense of humanity. Not even the final baptismal scene, in which an innocent child is washed clean of blood stains in the river, can redeem its characters of depravity.What does rescue the audience, however, is O'Rowe's language. Words and cadences tumble over each other with Joycean verve - indeed the language on its own threatens to overwhelm both the script and the characters.Ella Caldwell plays Olive, the town bike, strutting the confines of the theatre in fishnets and knee-high boots. Karen Roberts is more restrained as Ali, a mother who clearly knows she should get out, but can't. Erin Dewar is the junky prostitute Tilly, whose antics keep the audience squirming in their seats.Director Ross Ganf gives each of the actors space to move, so that all three women own the stage in their own way. The script tends to dominate the actors however, and they never quite escape the cliches of their roles.Crestfall exemplifies one of the great strengths of Red Stitch, which has consistently impressed with its willingness to seek out challenging scripts. But it also evidences the company's limitations in that, despite the actors' admirable reach, the roles seem just beyond their grasp.
© 2006 The Age