Madagascar

‘Madagascar’ was written by J. T. Rogers, a young American playwright, who has an honorary doctorate in Performing Arts. ‘Madagascar’ is Rogers’ best known play. As it was commissioned by the Salt Lake Acting Company it is not surprising that the theme is ‘families’.
Awarded a playwriting fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Rogers went on to receive the 2005 Pinter Review Prize for Drama.
The Black Swan State Theatre Company presents this thought-provoking story at the Playhouse Theatre, 3 Pier Street in Perth. The 2 hrs 10 minutes performance commences at 7.30 pm, with the season running until the 7^th November. 

        In a spotlight is the sylph-like figure of June (Rebecca Davis) dressed in a long white, cotton nightdress. In a soft New York accent she tells the audience of the number of people who go missing every year. June is a tour guide in Rome, born of a wealthy family, she is staying in a hotel room near the Spanish Steps. Her story is told ‘a few days ago’.
Next into the limelight steps Lilian (Amanda Muggleton) a brash, middle aged, Bette Midler-like woman, who is compared to Persephone. She has recently been widowed but is determined to forever push ahead, and has decided to spend part of her inheritance visiting the parts of the world that meant so much to her and her family. The self-centred Lilian is in the same hotel room, only five years ago. The room is spacious, and was built two or three hundred years ago when hotels were luxurious, now it sadly has an aged patina.
        The last reluctant visitor to the room is Nathan (Greg McNeill), a pedantic, boring micro-economist lecturer. He is a withdrawn tense man, walking with hunched shoulders, in an almost semi-foetal position. He is in Rome in the present day.
The tourists’ stories all have a central theme, a lost loved one. How will things resolve themselves – if at all?
 

These three characters deliver their monologues straight to the audience for the whole show, telling their evocative tales that embody the superficial way that we tackle our relationships, never really getting to know those who matter so much to us. The monologues are delivered in sometimes lengthy, although thoroughly entertaining, passages with only the very occasional, brief appearance of other characters – played by the cast – on the way. Does the story hint at relationships outside the norm?
Director, Kate Cherry, has handled the play in a beautifully delicate, understated manner, information is fed slowly to the audience (please don’t read the programme’s Synopsis before seeing the play, as I feel it gave far too much detail). The first 75-minute act was slow, with little progression of the story threads, the story almost being predictable from the first ten minutes, however after the interval, Act Two was far more dramatic and gave the excellent actors something to really get their teeth into.
The script was clever, even cunning in its style. The dialogue pace and technique was very poetic, as the stories returned to certain themes. There was even a small amount of onomatopoeia thrown in.
Ben Collins sound design was sensitive and unobtrusive, with a string quartet playing his own classical-style music at a very low sound level, turning into acoustic guitar as the story drama unwinds.
The lighting had the colour temperature tuned in to the characters speaking, with a cool, clear light for June, a cool blue for Nathan and a warm bright glow for Lilian. This worked extremely well.
Alicia Clements excelled herself with this set. The worn out luxury of yesteryear was almost like Versailles; her costumes immediately showed the personality and moral fibre of the wearer.
 
A beautifully directed, superbly acted and presented, richly written fascinating triple monologue.