CLOSER
DISTRICT 101 DARLINGHURST SYDNEY JULY 2011
I was lucky enough to catch one of the performances of the very short return season of this excellent production. Apocolypse Theatre under the excellent direction of Dino Dimitriadis brings us the gritty 'Closer' by Patrick Marber. Some readers will be familiar with the 2004 film, or the Sydney Theatre Company production. Raw, passionate and intimate, this is a gripping, very intense performance by four fabulous actors.
It all begins when Alice, a sometime stripper, ( Katrina Rautenberg) is hit by a car .She is rescued by a stranger - author Dan Woolf ( Tim Wardell) and ends up in hospital. She is examined by Dr Larry ( Michael Cullen ). What we then get is a a multi layered criss-crossing of relationships between Dan and Anna , a photographer ( Cat Martin) and Larry and Alice - their lives are interlinked, each of them is hiding secrets and there is a complicated merry-go-round of love and tangled, messy divorces, with an almost cinematic feel to the smooth sequing of scenes. Nothing is what it seems - or is it ?
It's a biting analysis of contemporary love,lust, sex, revenge and marriage, trying to analyze what makes relationships tick.The play attempts to understand the 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' division. The four characters get caught in a very complicated web of lies and deceit to each other and themselves. Marbers's script is very sarcastic at times, but also plumbs the depths of despair, but it can be extremely funny too.( warning - there is lots of strong language) .
It is very contemporary, with mobiles and laptops , and a very hot cyber-sex scene .
This is a new venue and there is a 'gallery' atmosphere as soon as you walk in ( very appropriate for this show as Anna is a photographer and some of the scenes are set in a gallery) so it really 'works'. However there can be a problem with sight lines because of the huge beams in the middle of the open performance space - but great use of the beams is made by Alice when she is back working in the club as a stripper in Act 2 .
The four performances are fabulous.Curly haired, bespectacled Wardell as Dan the author is brilliant - so many layers revealed and how he is torn between Alice and Anna . As magnetic, powerful yet a touch brutish charismatic Larry Cullen is splendid - trying to do the right thing but he is left with his life in a mess .
Martin's Anna the photographer is magnificent. Elegant,with fabulous long hair on the surface she seems to have everything going for her but again her life descends into a fractured mess, Or does it ?
With regards to the mysterious Alice- or should that be Jane Jones ? - Rautenberg is sensational ,totally captivating and believable with glorious long legs. But who is she really ?
Four extraordinary performances in this rivetting play
Running time : 2 hour 10 ( approx) including interval .
Apocolypse Theatre Company
District 101
season now finished
Directpr - Dino Dimitriadis
Larry Michael Cull
Dan Tim Wardell
Alice Katrina Rautenberg
Anna Cat Martin
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