Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
Fri 27 Feb
The title of this play might seem at first to be misleading. It is not a compendium of all the violent acts that have occurred throughout history, but the recollection of a single incident on a particular night. Perhaps an incident that has occurred many times but a singular incident all the same. A chance encounter between two men which begins flirtatiously and develops amorously but turns very violent indeed.
The play begins with a forensic team investigating what appears to be a crime scene. But what is the crime? There is blood involved, so is it a murder? Their investigations are underscored by some percussion by Thomas Witte, who provides a fabulous and moody soundtrack throughout the play using just drums and occasional keyboard.
There are subtitles on screen so we get every word of what happens. These are great for anyone with hearing issues or with a limited understanding of the spoken German. On the other hand, the need to keep reading them does divert the attention somewhat from what is happening on stage.
Laurenz Laufenberg as Édouard is onstage as we arrive, and it is his sole role to recall what happened to him on the night in question. The other three actors, Christoph Gawenda, Renato Schuch and Alina Stiegler, all have multiple roles to play.
Renato Schuch has the most complicated role as Reda, the initially flirtatious and easy going man who convinces a reluctant Édouard to take him up to his room. A hint of his darker side first emerges when he is quite strident about his Kabyle (Berber) background and his hate of being considered an Arab. In a further turn we witness him steal Édouard’s phone and iPad while Édouard is taking a shower, something he vehemently denies. The subsequent swings in Reda’s personality, both before and after the violence that ensues, are something to behold.
A very clever device in this play is the way various people involved in recalling Edouardo’s story – his family, the police and medical staff – are on the side of the stage commenting on the action in real time rather than as a summary after the event. So none of what happens needs to be repeated.
The play does have its lighter moments. Alina Stiegler as Édouard’s sister from another planet steals a lot of the limelight. They clearly see the world through different eyes. A bearded Christoph Gawenda is delightfully silly when he dons a wig to become Édouard’s mother. As a police investigator he comes up with the comic line of the night – “Did you not notice his weapon?”
On the technical side another very clever device is the use by the cast of mobile phone cameras to film and project onto the full back screen closeups of what is happening on stage that we might not otherwise notice. Such as the intricate police forensic techniques or facial expressions of cast members not necessarily facing the audience.
This play is provocative and not for everyone. There are serious questions about some dark tendencies in contemporary life, to what extent are we willing to deny past horrors and what lies we are prepared to accept in order to cope with the present. The author Hannah Arendt is mentioned at the end and a greater knowledge of her work than mine would perhaps have led to a deeper understanding of the play’s intentions. To quote Arendt: “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil”.
Alarming but thought provoking theatre.
4.5 stars
Adrian Miller.
History Of Violence continues at various times at Dunstan Playhouse until Monday 2nd Mar. Book HERE for tickets.
The Clothesline Rating...
Adrian Miller
A piercing study of some darker aspects of human nature.
