Review: AS WE FORGIVE Challenges Our Views On Vengeance, Hatred and Forgiveness

Friday 13th May 2016, 7pm, SBW Stables, Kings Cross

Tom Holloway's AS WE FORGIVE asks the audience to re-evaluate their perceptions of vengeance, hatred and the extent of forgiveness through three separate stories, presented by sole performer Robert Jarman. Drawn together with Raffaele Marcellino's composition for cello, performed by Jack Ward, the three works are convincing in asking the audience to reconsider what society has traditionally told us is right, wrong and possible.

Set Designers Jill Munro and Julian Meyrick have created a simple set of a framed screen that at first glance appears to be a discoloured parchment and a changing array of chairs around which Jarman presents the three different men. Prior to meeting each man, the title of the first work appears on the screen, before a dictionary definition is displayed. Marcellino's contemporary composition for the cello sets a maudlin, unsettled ambiance with its disjointed tones before each man occupies the stage. The music, which varies slightly with each interlude fills the space between the three stories and the chairs and the man's costume changes for each story. Each character is presented with a unique use of space and delivery style, ensuring that it is clear that these are three separate stories.

Holloway's text is beautiful in its honesty and reality. It is detailed enough without being unrealistic for the various characters to be using the language selected. He draws out the emotion and sympathy from the audience so that we easily question the responses we have been conditioned to have and come to agree with the character's rationale for the validation of vengeance, hatred and extent of forgiveness.

Jarman's presentation of Holloway's three characters is sensitive, subtle and well-paced. He connects with the audience through eye contact and a comfortable tone that carries enough emotion, but not too much. There is a wonderful use of silence which allows thoughts to settle and a conviction in the men's belief that their views are justified. The first stories two ask the audience to contemplate whether emotions that society has told us are wrong are in fact justified when the reason for the emotion is significant enough and the audience understands that the parameters of the victims' situations are explained. When the audience fully understands that a disabled pensioner only has his home as his sanctuary, we understand the extent of his world and the need for vengeance. When the audience fully understands the trauma inflicted on a child, we understand the persistence of hatred. The third story is a representation of the extent of trauma and the inability for forgiveness to be enough to heal wounds, serving as a warning to avoid being put in a situation where we must ask for forgiveness, either from other or ourselves, as forgiveness won't necessarily erase the damage that persists.

Presented by Tasmania Performs and Griffin Theatre Company, AS WE FORGIVE is a work that is both complex and simple. At face value, the stories are straight forward and understandable, but they also ask the viewer to look inside themselves and re-evaluate their own responses and their judgements of others who may not have responded in the way society has said is accepted and expected. Jarman's control and range with the emotional work is well presented with appropriate timing and use of silence and connection to the audience. AS WE FORGIVE is an important thought provoking collection of plays that all types of audiences should see.

AS WE FORGIVE
SBW Stables, Kings Cross
11 - 21 May 2016

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