Rabbit Hole
Rabbit Hole, Ensemble Theatre, opening night: August 17, 2007; ph: (02) 9929 0644 or www.ensemble.com.au
Rabbit Hole won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is nominated for the corresponding Tony. According to the New York Times critic Ben Brantley, it was one of the most tear-provoking, emotionally draining experiences to be had on the New York stage in its time slot. This may be evidence of a cultural or emotional gap between New York and Sydney; after all, we have yet to deal with something like 9/11, our DNA isn't saccharine-soaked anyway and in any event, the absence of hankies was notable on opening night at the Ensemble.
This is not to say the audience did not enjoy Rabbit Hole (by David Lindsay-Abaire, author of Kimberley Akimbo, a previous Ensemble success of genuine emotional depth) because there was a lot of enjoyment in the air: much laughter and rapt attention. However this could perhaps be because Georgie Parker is an actress who could wring laughter out of a shopping list while at the same time compelling an audience to accompany her emotional journey much as a magnet inexorably draws pins. And on this occasion she is brilliantly supported by another actress: Queenie van de Zandt. Van de Zandt's ability as a cabaret and musical theatre artist is not in question (her one-woman show I Get the Music in You was a big hit last year) but her touching, intelligent and exquisitely funny performance is a revelation.
Parker and van de Zandt play suburban sisters - Becca and Izzy - whose lives are wrenched inside out following the accidental death of Becca's son. Running into the street after his dog, the little boy was killed by a young driver (Jonathan Prescott) whose own despair is compounded by his suspicion that he might have been travelling a couple of kilometres over the speed limit. Watching from the sidelines and unable to reconcile their own grief and feelings with the enigma who is Becca are her mother, Nat (Lorraine Bayly), and husband Howie (Mark Kilmurry).
To tell this story and its consequences, Lindsay-Abaire employs the classic mordant New York style of dialogue - more Neil Simon than mawkish. It serves to counterpoint the tragedy and its (even worse) aftermath around which the characters circle in varying states of incomprehension and despair. In portraying the droll, nasal-twanged sass of these women, Parker and van de Zandt are electric stage presences and give exceptional performances. Parker is able to take Becca from frozen grief and pale anger to a place more independent and forgiving; yet she does not sacrifice a teaspoonful of sardonic humour nor allow herself to tip into parody. Van de Zandt is her brilliant foil: a rhino-skinned klutz who means well and genuinlely cares but who can't begin to see the trail of squashed toes and hurt feelings she blithely leaves in her wake.
As the puzzled, hurting, increasingly angry and frustrated Howie, the usually excellent Kilmurry is less at ease. His curiously whiny, sing-song delivery of the emotional speeches - so effective in the character of the brain-damaged Miles in The Drawer Boy - is, here, a trait that would surely cause Becca to whack him with a frypan, or simply leave, if he carried on that way for very much longer. At the same time, Bayly seems a little lost in translation: unsure of her place in the scheme of things and somewhat at sea in a way that might settle as the season progresses. Her relative absence makes one wonder at how the New York casting of the powerhouse Tyne Daly in the role would have affected the play's dynamics. Nevertheless, Bayly and Parker share a scene of tentative mother-daughter exploration and reconciliation which is very effective.
Rabbit Hole is entertaining as comedy and think piece. It asks uncomfortable questions such as how do you cope with the unassuageable grief of another? How do you move on from the unimaginable? and does it with crisp wordplay, humour and insights. If it is the capital "I" important play that at least one New York critic saw, that aspect escaped me. Nevertheless, Georgie Parker and Queenie van de Zandt make it a very special night.
You can hear an interview with Georgie Parker about Rabbit Hole on episode 39 of Stagecast.
