This was really excellent - the best thing I've seen in quite a while, and I reckon one of the best handful that I've seen put on at the Malthouse down the years full stop (a few others that stand out: Eldorado, Woyzeck, a pair of Becketts - Happy Days and The End - Terminus, the Declan Greene pair of Moth and Pompeii, LA, last year's The Wild Duck). I haven't seen the Bergman film from which it was adapted, but it entirely works on its own terms - working with a core theme of identity (as performance and as permeable), and weaving that in around the forces that structure and drive us, including in relation to others, not least sex and death. It's an arresting production, the white curtained set framed and lit in a way that feels like being in someone's mind, and the whole starkly, fluidly dreamlike. Also, fantastic, committed performances from the two principals, Meredith Penman as Elizabeth and Karen Sibbing as Alba. I think it's going to be a hard one to stop thinking about.
(w/ Kai and Alice + Al's friend Bel)
(w/ Kai and Alice + Al's friend Bel)
