REMEMBERING PIRATES

By Diana Simmonds

October 13 2016

REMEMBERING PIRATES, Darlinghurst Theatre Company at the Eternity Playhouse, 16 September-16 October 2016. Photography by Helen White: above - Emma Palmer and Robert Alexander; below - Emma Palmer and Simon London

This new play by Christopher Harley (who also wrote the excellent Blood Bank/Ensemble Theatre) had a hiccuping start to its premiere run with the opening night cancelled (for critics) because of “technical problems”. That, unfortunately, is why I’ve only caught up with it now – in the last week of the season.

Glad I did. Whatever its problems – and there is a moment where it’s obvious that, had it gone wrong, it would have been more than a hiccup – the play and the company have settled into a well-oiled and credible groove for its 55-minutes running time. 

For this production the Eternity stage is used at its minimal best with a set design (Alicia Clements) of a full width back wall with a door at either end and, in between, what would be a panoramic picture window if it were not for opaque white drapes. These mostly riffle uneasily in a night breeze and throw light that conjures nightmares of childhood when every shadow was definitely a lurking monster (lighting design: Daniel Barber).

The sense of disquiet is raised at the outset with a jumble of ill-defined yet ominous street sounds, radio announcements, news items, snatches of music and other aural detritus (Nate Edmondson – score, Katelyn Shaw – sound). It seems a child has gone missing and we just know that cannot be good. But when, who and why and how are not immediately clear. Is it a memory? Is it fantasy? And then there’s the whisper of knowing that Remembering Pirates is a palimpsest and somewhere beneath the surface(s) are Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.

The idea of confusion is then made concrete through a visit by Wendy (Emma Palmer) to an institution where her father (Robert Alexander) is fading in and out of dementia and is unwillingly and unhappily incarcerated. The frustration and unhappiness of the daughter for her inability to properly connect or understand her father’s mental geography is mirrored by his plight. 

The older man is adrift in an inner world where past and present, reality and the imagined are one and the same. It’s both baffling and illuminating by turn, which is a fascinating place for a member of an audience to find her or himself. Wendy’s long-suffering husband Richard (Stephen Multari) is in that place most of the time and watching him trying to maintain patience and civility in the face of the old man’s disdain and his wife’s deep distraction is surely something many will instantly recognise.

Richard’s forbearance is even more sorely tested when Wendy’s other brother John (Simon London) turns up at their house – once the family house and one which is about to be sold – with the intention of staying the night in his old room. That John is obviously deeply disturbed and in need of professional help didn’t make me want to whack him any the less. His sense of entitlement and refusal to grow up would be funny if not so familiar.

Remembering Pirates has apparently been compressed from a much longer original and this is evident in the concise and well defined language and emotional temperature. It’s tough and tender, sometimes funny and mostly discomfiting. Robert Alexander’s obsessive and bewildered old man is moving and immediately identifiable. Emma Palmer and Simon London share the bulk of the action intelligently and persuasively and Stephen Multari’s support is crucial to the mostly mesmerising hold of the play.

It’s not perfect, but it has earned its place in the Darlinghurst season. Further work on the script – mainly to fix a credibility issue involving a young girl and a dead body – would considerably improve it. And although the layers of meaning and possibility are intriguing and Iain Sinclair’s direction leaves tantalising space for an audience to explore, some expansion of the characters wouldn’t go amiss to take it to, say, 80 minutes. The ideas and the narrative could easily bear that kind of weight.

Meanwhile, Remembering Pirates is a play and production that intrigues and raises glitters of tempting questions in the imagination – just like Tinkerbelle’s fairy dust! Only on until Sunday and well worth catching.