Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Street Two: Our Shadows Pass Only Once

Well... This is bleak.

The script, by Canberra writer David Temme, is well crafted, poetic and powerful. Two couples are involved in fraught relationships; the younger couple's new and volatile (marked by violence); the older couple's exhausted and anxious (marked by mental illness).

Gillian Schwab's design is highly effective: a black floor between two raised rostra is littered with index cards, each with a word or two on them; the actors select one to hang on the wall to mark each of 15 vignettes. Each card is projected onto the back wall for a few seconds, occasionally so are angles and close-ups of the actors.

Music, by Shoeb Ahmad, is subtle and precisely complementary.

Andrew Holmes' direction is finely-honed, bringing the most out of each phrase and movement.

The performances are excellent: Caroline Simone O'Brien is luminous; Raoul Craemer more emotional than I've ever seen him; Sarah Nathan-Truesdale fresh and raw; Josh Wiseman shows a depth previous roles have not offered him.

But geeze, it's grim.

By all means see this; there is much to admire in the performances, language and production values. But if anything in it reminds you of your current relationship - get out now.

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