GORGE '09 - GREEN ROOM REVIEW - 2ND DAY

by Jane Howard

Night two of Gorge 09 gave us Matthew Cormack’s Like Brothers In A Bathtub presented by TheimaGen and Unreasonable Adults.

Cormack’s play tells the story of artist George, as he struggles with the concept presented to him by his agent:  draw God.  The most successful production was TheimaGen’s, directed by Justin McGuiness – fusing traditional theatre with video.  Jamie Harding played George and twin Bernard, and it was incredibly interesting watching him act against videos of himself and scene partner Kate Roxby.  Video allowed quick scene changes, gave an interesting visual exploration of the themes, and neatly solved the problem of casting identical twins.

While some found Unreasonable Adults’ production an interesting interpretation, the general consensus at the talkback was of disappointment and confusion.   The stage was covered with keywords from the play, before the (heavily edited) script was read by text-to-speech synthesis.   No connection seemed to exist between the two actors sitting onstage and the text, and I viewed it as a disappointing disservice to McCormack’s intriguing script.

Part of the excitement from Gorge is you don’t know what to expect: you might be thrown outside your comfort zone,  companies take risks.  It is nonetheless disappointing when a subpar production is the result, but such is the nature of theatre.  Bring on night three!