Review: Stories From Opposite Sides Of The World Come Together In DEAD CENTRE/SEA WALL

Saturday 7 November 2015, 7:30pm, Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo

Direcor Julian Meyrick has bought together DEAD CENTRE/SEA WALL, Tom Holloway and Simon Stephens' seemingly separate plays, to create a complete a story. Two people seek to explain why they are talking to a group of strangers as they share their history with the audience.

For DEAD CENTRE, Rosie Lockhart is Helen, a woman with a nervous disposition that was apparently bored with her life in England who left a husband and father in England to move to Australia based on a beer advertisement. The 30 minute monologue wavers between off topic rambling and thought out speech as we get an insight into Helen's inner turmoil and breakdown. From a life where she has little motivation to do anything, she explains how she ended up seeking an escape to the world she saw on screen, even moving into a suburb based on its likeness to NEIGHBOURS. Lockhart presents Helen as somewhat detached as she recounts her spiral into a nervous breakdown in the middle of Australia as sounds of thunder and drums rumble, projections of clouds appear on the sheer and a man sets up a camera behind the sheer.

Alex (Ben Prendergast) is the sole character delivering another monologue in SEA WALL. Similarly, Alex's story weaves between clarity and wandering as he ponders whether there is a god and what he'd look like and recounts family holidays to visit his father in law on the French sea side. As with DEAD CENTRE, there is action behind the sheer as a woman, dressed as a child plays a music box. SEA WALL expands on the projection onto the sheer from 3 frames to use of the whole screen, whilst maintaining stronger light on the three 'windows' of space.

DEAD CENTRE, whilst presented first is more of a post script to SEA WALL in its content, in keeping with the fact that it was commissioned as a response to SEA WALL.

This is an intriguing work that keeps the audience wondering until the end. Lockhart and Prendergast present the monologues as if the audience were their therapist or support group and exhibit a range of emotions as they move between humorous anecdotes, and difficult memories.

DEAD CENTRE/SEA WALL

Old Fitzroy Hotel

129 Dowling Street Woolloomooloo NSW 2011

20 October - 14 November 2015