Friday March 29, 2024
PERPLEX
Review

PERPLEX

By Polly Simons
April 13 2014

PERPLEX, Sydney Theatre Company Wharf 1, 31 March - 3 May 2014. Photography by Lisa Tomasetti. Above: Tim Walter, Andrea Demetriades, Glenn Hazeldine and Rebecca Massey. Right: Tim Walter and Andrea Demetriades.

BY POLLY SIMONS

Elk costumes. Vikings. Volcanoes. Severed heads. Expect the unexpected is a phrase that springs to mind when describing Marius von Mayenburg’s play Perplex. Or, as one audience member loudly whispered to her friend during an uncharacteristically quiet moment: “It certainly is absurdist.”

It starts conventionally enough: Glenn and Andrea arrive home from the holidays, only to find there’s something not quite right in their sparsely decorated living room (set design by Renee Mulder). There’s a pot plant in the kitchen they have never seen before. Glenn keeps walking into a coffee table he swears wasn’t there. Tim and Rebecca, the friends asked to housesit for them, are nowhere to be seen. When they eventually arrive, it’s clear the couple have taken over the nest in Glenn and Andrea’s absence. Glenn and Andrea are unceremoniously evicted.

What follows is a rapid-fire progression of bizarre scenes, each one stranger than the last, as the four actors chop and change characters at bewildering speed. The only thing that remains the same is von Mayenburg’s determination to change the goalposts of what to expect at every turn. Just as you think you have a handle on what’s going on, it gives way and you’re left groping for understanding again.

PERPLEX

Director Sarah Giles previously directed von Mayenberg’s play The Ugly One at Griffin in 2011, and here she manages the mayhem with the skill of an experienced conductor. Each of the actors –Glenn Hazeldine, Andrea Demetriades, Tim Walter and Rebecca Massey, who keep their names throughout - clearly relish the opportunity to have a bit of fun on stage, particularly as the costumes come out.

Walter is goofily funny as an elk, Massey is excellent as a Viking queen and Andrea Demetriades gets the full benefit of Renee Mulder’s fabulous costumes as an Icelandic geological formation (though you’ll have to guess which one).  

Glenn Hazeldine comes closest to bringing some emotional depth as a spurned lover, though to be fair Perplex doesn’t require depth or even some greater 'meaning' in order to enjoy it. It’s more as STC describes it, a “shape shifting theatrical puzzle”. Better to simply roll with the punches. It may be the most surprising night you have all year.

 

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