States of Shock - The West Review
Fri, 15 July 2005, 03:14 pmgeorgia1 post in thread
States of Shock - The West Review
Fri, 15 July 2005, 03:14 pmStates of Shock by Sam Shepard
Not the Mama Productions
Review: Ron Banks (The West Australian, Friday 15 July 2005)
'Casualties of War'
Sam Shepard's absurdist, symbol-laden States of Shock was written in response to the first Gulf war in 1991.
But Shepard comes from the Vietnam generation and there are echoes of that war and just about every other American conflict in this brilliantly realised production.
Symbols of both American power and its impotence are scattered throughout the play, which takes place in a circular setting ringed by sand in which the actors sometimes become bogged - like soldiers storming a beach.
But that is only one of the symbols in Shepard's study of the craziness of war; the main symbol is the set itself - a family diner that becomes a metaphor for American life and cultural values.
In the diner are a couple dressed entirely in white, who barely move, as if in a reverie. Their unsettling, ghostly presence is interrupted by the arrival of the Colonel (Bill McCluskey) a bemedalled soldier with all the accoutrements of power.
He is pushing a young man in a wheelchair, a former soldier named Stubbs (Peter Webb) whose savage chest wound is revealed in graphic detail.
They have come to the diner to commemorate the death of the Colonel's son, who died in the enemy attack that injured the wheelchair-bound Stubbs.
As the colonel tries to come to terms with the death of his son by laying out the battlefield on the table with knives and fors, it becomes apparent that this military man is unhinged and delusional.
Stubbs is in a similar state of dysfunction, his responses accompanied by the jerks and twitches of a man physically and emotionally distressed.
This bizarre encounter between the two men is disturbed by waitress Glory Bee, whose own lack of balance is reflected by her inability to take the drinks to the table without spilling them. The Colonel interrupts his own thoughts to show her something about balance - a highly ironic scene given his own lack of equilibrium.
At various points the ghostly couple add their own comments to the increasingly savage encounter between the two men, who, it becomes apparent, are really father and son.
This suggests the Colonel is in denial, symbolising America's denial of its own sons at various times in its history of warfare.
If that is not enough of an irony, the two men also toast 'the enemy' a reference to the notion that the American sense of community can only be sustained by a state of war against whoever is the enemy of the day.
States of Shock crackles with ironies and savage symbolism, producing a remarkably intense and almost visceral experience.
These wounded male characters may be impotent - literally and metaphorically - but Shepard's hour-long play has its own potency to shock and disturb.
His tough, taut script is well served by the cast, led by the experieced McCluskey's strutting, arrogant, uncertain, wheelding and contradictory Colonel, with Webb disturbingly convincing as the maimed soldier.
Naomi Hanbury finds the notes of uncertainty and bewilderment in the naive waitress, with Nikki Jones and Sean Walsh as the couple in which completing the absurdist, off-kilter picture.
Melissa Cantwell's direction is assured and the sound and lighting cues add to the play's punch.
States of Shock raises all sorts of issues about the horrors of war, denial, patriotism and the sheer bloody mess that is the legacy of any American involvement in the conflicts. It couln't be more relevant in the wake of the second Gulf war.
**************
States of Shock by Sam Shepard
Friday 15, Saturday 16 & Tuesday 19 - Saturday 23, 8pm
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA)
51 James St, Northbridge
Tickets $18 concession / $22 Full
BOOKINGS THROUGH PICA ON 9227 9339
DON'T MISS IT!
regards
Georgia
Not the Mama Productions
Not the Mama Productions
Review: Ron Banks (The West Australian, Friday 15 July 2005)
'Casualties of War'
Sam Shepard's absurdist, symbol-laden States of Shock was written in response to the first Gulf war in 1991.
But Shepard comes from the Vietnam generation and there are echoes of that war and just about every other American conflict in this brilliantly realised production.
Symbols of both American power and its impotence are scattered throughout the play, which takes place in a circular setting ringed by sand in which the actors sometimes become bogged - like soldiers storming a beach.
But that is only one of the symbols in Shepard's study of the craziness of war; the main symbol is the set itself - a family diner that becomes a metaphor for American life and cultural values.
In the diner are a couple dressed entirely in white, who barely move, as if in a reverie. Their unsettling, ghostly presence is interrupted by the arrival of the Colonel (Bill McCluskey) a bemedalled soldier with all the accoutrements of power.
He is pushing a young man in a wheelchair, a former soldier named Stubbs (Peter Webb) whose savage chest wound is revealed in graphic detail.
They have come to the diner to commemorate the death of the Colonel's son, who died in the enemy attack that injured the wheelchair-bound Stubbs.
As the colonel tries to come to terms with the death of his son by laying out the battlefield on the table with knives and fors, it becomes apparent that this military man is unhinged and delusional.
Stubbs is in a similar state of dysfunction, his responses accompanied by the jerks and twitches of a man physically and emotionally distressed.
This bizarre encounter between the two men is disturbed by waitress Glory Bee, whose own lack of balance is reflected by her inability to take the drinks to the table without spilling them. The Colonel interrupts his own thoughts to show her something about balance - a highly ironic scene given his own lack of equilibrium.
At various points the ghostly couple add their own comments to the increasingly savage encounter between the two men, who, it becomes apparent, are really father and son.
This suggests the Colonel is in denial, symbolising America's denial of its own sons at various times in its history of warfare.
If that is not enough of an irony, the two men also toast 'the enemy' a reference to the notion that the American sense of community can only be sustained by a state of war against whoever is the enemy of the day.
States of Shock crackles with ironies and savage symbolism, producing a remarkably intense and almost visceral experience.
These wounded male characters may be impotent - literally and metaphorically - but Shepard's hour-long play has its own potency to shock and disturb.
His tough, taut script is well served by the cast, led by the experieced McCluskey's strutting, arrogant, uncertain, wheelding and contradictory Colonel, with Webb disturbingly convincing as the maimed soldier.
Naomi Hanbury finds the notes of uncertainty and bewilderment in the naive waitress, with Nikki Jones and Sean Walsh as the couple in which completing the absurdist, off-kilter picture.
Melissa Cantwell's direction is assured and the sound and lighting cues add to the play's punch.
States of Shock raises all sorts of issues about the horrors of war, denial, patriotism and the sheer bloody mess that is the legacy of any American involvement in the conflicts. It couln't be more relevant in the wake of the second Gulf war.
**************
States of Shock by Sam Shepard
Friday 15, Saturday 16 & Tuesday 19 - Saturday 23, 8pm
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA)
51 James St, Northbridge
Tickets $18 concession / $22 Full
BOOKINGS THROUGH PICA ON 9227 9339
DON'T MISS IT!
regards
Georgia
Not the Mama Productions