Review: THE TURQUOISE ELEPHANT Trumpets the Absurdities of Now at Griffin Theatre

There is little on this planet more absurd than the way we, the human race, treat it; nonetheless the final offering of Griffin Theatre mainstage for the year comes pretty close. The Turquoise Elephant extrapolates the bizarre misconduct of modern society for a pre-apocalyptic glimpse into the life of a rich and powerful family as they in each their own fashion do their part to destroy the world. In its symbolism, Stephen Carleton's text weaves fantastic, but not unrealistic, circumstance with director Gale Edwards' Luhrmannian technicolour styling for quite the nihilistic spectacle.

If humanity is waiting for the other shoe to drop, its likely Carleton's dystopia will not be far from true, and the symbolism of each character represents the extreme of what spectrum many Australians are already sliding along. Basra, the impotent activist, has created a brand for the disasters humanity faces, but is too late to the fray. Her grandmother Augusta, the first-class plunderer, wields apathy and denial to push disaster forward while her great-aunt Olympia, the voyeur, shacks up with semi-Texan Jeff, the opportunist, seeking business opportunities from the tragedy. While these strategies that require no real change misdirect and misfire against the two-legged virus, newly-hired maid Visi watches on in disgust and devises a plot to reckon them all.

Although the opening performance was pitted with some pacing glitches and cue-stepping, The Turquoise Elephant was a genuinely funny and visually delightful production. Brian Thomson's clinical-modern, ultra-minimalist, laser-sharp design set the perfect tone for contrast to the chaos of blood and effluence the outside world brings in. Emma Vine's costumes from wigs to shoes were scene-stealing and futuristic in a completely different direction than the set, highlighting the illogical nature of the Turquoise Elephant universe. Verity Hampson brought touches of James Turrell and Catherine Martin to the execution of colour and film, drawing on the unmistakeable iOTA as leader of extreme activists The Cultural Front for Environmental Preservation; insightfully the fictional collective charges politicians and artists for the ecological holocaust.

Gale Edwards' direction kept the tension taut for the duration, and the absurdism of the piece was not taken for granted but cleverly volatized by the performances. Belinda Giblin's Olympia was a highlight of lip-smacking disregard for environmental catastrophe, mastering the implementation of dead-pan and hyperbolic delivery of text to keep the audience in stitches. Maggie Dence's August frothed with derision and a domineering matriarchy that reminded every ticketholder that Christmas is coming up. Catherine Davies' Visi breathed fresh air into every corner of the stage, and found room for reason and conviction in amongst the chaos. In the role of Basra, Olivia Rose ran an admirable marathon with much of the content and momentum in her character's court. Julian Garner as Jeff was sickeningly plausible, and he did not let a single moment on stage go by without some eroticism or erraticism. iOTA was a marvel as ever, and managed to emote an arc in an episodic narrator.

What is most unnerving about The Turquoise Elephant, figuratively and literally, is that for all it appeared to mock what's to come, by the close of curtain it clearly wasn't depicting the future, but the present.

Tickets available here.

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