Justin Fleming's "Burnt Piano", Garrick Theatre, Guilford, February 2010

Director: Andrew Warwick Co-Director: Alice Warwick Cast: • Veronica Fourie (Suzanne Beckett) • Irma McCullen (Karen Idlewild) • Greg Ross (Peter Idlewild) • Danann Saunders (Jonah) • Andrew Warwick (Samuel Beckett) Stage Manager: Linda Redman (For reasons of maintaining the utmost objectivity, it should be noted that I know a member of the cast personally). The Play Justin Fleming’s “Burnt Piano” is a play about bookseller Karen Idlewild who has taken an intense interest in Samuel Beckett; she is convinced that his plays somehow represent her “star sign” and that her life can only be explained through his works. Therefore, she has moved to France with her son Jonah and her father Pete to be able to meet Beckett, whom she tries to contact by sending him numerous letters. Her father tries to make her see that she should rather give her son Jonah more attention and that her urgent wish to meet Beckett comes close to fanaticism, and it becomes increasingly clear that the family are trying to come to terms with what must have been a major catastrophe in their lives. However, according to what Pete mentions in the play about the merits of good story-telling, the audience does not learn the details of the tragic events that form the background of the action of the play – the death of Jonah’s brother Freddie in a house fire when Freddie tried to rescue Jonah from the flames - until the very end. However, one should not make the mistake to expect ”Burnt Piano” to be a story of suspense which is told entirely realistically – after all, this is a deeply psychological play that explores the human mind in depth; and even if Karen constantly tries to ‘fix” her thoughts and fantasies in a journal, dictating them onto tape in a creative process not unlike that which any playwright or author attempts, even the very first words of the play make it very clear her encounters with Beckett merely take place in her “imagination”. For example, there is clear geographical information - “Burnt Piano” is largely set in Paris, apart from one scene that is supposed to take place in Berlin; but although the action of the drama unfolds in the winter of 1989 and therefore not only in the year of Beckett’s death, but also directly after the most important events of recent German history, nevertheless, there aren’t any specific historic references – interestingly enough, particularly the encounter between Karen and Samuel Beckett in a snowy park in Berlin, is clearly marked by Karen as her dream. And although we learn some general facts about Beckett, too, and there is a constant interchange on stage between the Samuel Beckett from “real life” and his superhuman counterpart of Karen Idlewild’s imagination, the “facts” about the Irish playwright are not so much important in themselves, but Karen’s attempts of interpretations of Beckett’s work rather tell us something about the way she and her whole family have been affected and traumatised by the tragic loss of her older son. Yet, the focus on Beckett is no mere chance, for the direct quotations of “Waiting for Godot” in “Burnt Piano” as well as the focus on some of the most important general themes that are recurrent in Beckett’s plays – guilt and self-doubt, the continuous search for meaning within the apparently absurdly futile human existence, and the hope of salvation by some powerful redeemer - allow Karen to connect to his works, make her identify with them to a degree that not only her down-to-earth father Pete might find worrisome and turn “Burnt Piano” not least of all into a very knowledgeable, intelligent (and, not least of all, entertaining) variation and comment on Beckett’s writings. “Burnt Piano” at Garrick Theatre, February 2010 In the production at Garrick, the stage design might at first sight have given the impression of trying to create a “natural” setting, with the first scene taking place in what seems to represent a fully furnished living room (great attention having been paid to the details all along, such as a well stocked bookshelf in the background); however, a smoothly operated revolving stage, a mechanism that can be a bit tricky in itself, in this case indeed allows swift, effective changes of scenery especially to the more abstract outdoor settings, i.e. to a wintery park or a cemetery, thus at the same time clearly marked and recognisable as landscapes of the mind, whereas the subtle, yet very telling lighting adds a remarkably transcendent quality to the action. It is mainly the great cast, however, which makes it possible for the spectator to fully grasp the complex structure and various layers of meaning of this play. Andrew Warwick, not only directing the production, but also appearing on stage himself as Samuel Beckett, deserves to be mentioned first – for playing the aged, drinking writer with great feeling and compassion, perfectly balanced by a wry display of humour and, not least of all and vital for this production, for his excellent live piano playing (the piano kindly having been loaned to the theatre and installed on stage free of charge by Perth piano tuner Rebecca Hills). Veronica Fourie as his wife Suzanne also gives a remarkably lively and charismatic performance – her convincing French accent adding an extra degree of authenticity to her lines. Also, Irma McCullen as Karen Idlewild who has had to familiarise herself with the greatest amount of text, gives a performance at the same time insightful, intelligent and poignant, making a mother’s loss, her helplessness, her attempt to regain her sanity and even her strange obsession with Beckett entirely comprehensible - which helps to make watching this production of “Burnt Piano”, a play which has sometimes been criticised for being too “intellectual”, a very moving experience. By contrast, the specific qualities her father and well-meaning critic Pete is supposed to have – for example, quick-wittedness and a certain pragmatic common sense – are represented to perfection by Greg Ross; yet, he also manages to endow his role as “Pete” with several exceptionally emotional moments enacted with great sensitivity and a certain discreet understatement, for example when Pete openly confesses that he feels let down by his daughter who, instead of accepting him as a father, seems to be satisfied with nothing he does as a writer of what she considers to be minor fiction and seems to want nothing less than a “Guru” instead. Finally, great praise has to go to young Dannan Saunders as Karen’s son Pete; his absolutely plausible exploration of Jonah’s character, his professional way of relating to his fellow-actors on stage and the way he therefore manages to give credibility to the boy’s suffering are immensely impressive; his scenes with Andrew Warwick as Beckett are among the strongest in this production. All in all, it has to be admitted that “Burnt Piano” is no doubt a play which requires a high degree of concentration from the audience, as it works with subtle hints and clever allusions rather than with more obtrusive eye-catching stage effects; it rather sets you thinking than giving you easy answers, and it keeps many of the philosophical questions brought up in it open for interpretation rather than presenting you with obvious statements, even if sometimes, but very rarely, certain ideas are unnecessarily spelt out that the spectators might rather have been trusted to see for themselves, as these points become clear enough both from the general subtext and, in this case, the fine acting of the Garrick cast. Yet, especially in a production like the one at Garrick that clearly has exceeded the standards of what is to be expected of “amateur” theatre, it is both a challenge for the mind as well as a deeply touching play to watch. With “Burnt Piano” already having been performed in Paris and a German translation now available, it is therefore to be hoped that this complex masterpiece with its rich web of references to European literature, theatre and culture will be discovered by a larger audience outside Australia as well.