Speaking in Tongues

Performed by The Newcastle Theatre Company

 

I ask myself, why do I do this?

This being; a good way to ruin a perfectly good play by default. Simply by getting the Continuity Supervisor from films to review a live performance. We just see things differently. And have a tendency to get hung up on the smallest things.

 

But I suppose my interest in this play did come from film, as it was quite famously made into that haunting Australian classic Lantana 10 years ago. So, yes, that's probably why I did it. But of course this is not a comparison. I'll write the review and then re-watch the film later.

 

Speaking in Tongues is not an easy narrative to take on for any director, as the plot has more twists than an 80s perm. The parallax of a group of outer-suburbanites dance into, and out of, each others lives with some what disturbing consequences. It explores the alienation of marriage and the closeness of strangers. Or mistrust of strangers and the the forgiveness of betrayal. It's not a play that whips around these issues lightly, it plays with these issues with equal amounts of suspense and humour.

 

Saying all that, Craig Barnes directs his cast into a solid performance with the characters fleshed out nicely. You have to feel for these ordinary people put through the hoops of what seems to be one of the strangest week in their lives. And I sat there and believed them as they took me on that journey. There are no heroes in this story. You start identifying with all the little bits and remembering that once you stood on that lonely backroad, or lied to a loved one, or simply broke down and cried for no particular reason.

 

I enjoyed this latest offering by the Newcastle Theatre Company, and recommend it to anyone who has seen the film. It lends its self as a whimsical look at the strange things we bring out in others.

 

The funny, the bad, the sad, the crazy and the unexplained.

 

Which leaves me with: when is a pair of brogues not a pair of brogues?

 

Dwuan LaTrobe