Belvoir/State Theatre SA. Dunstan Playhouse. 20 Oct 2015

 

It's a crime story. It's about the squalid and rapacious world of drug smugglers in Sydney. It's about Sydney real estate and its social divide. And, it's about Coca-Cola, lots of evil addictive Coca-Cola as well as the coke that is not cola. 

 

The audience reactions on Mortido's opening night were mixed. Some were struggling to work out the Mexican folklore and others, the relevance of the sadomasochistic homosexuality. Some said they were puzzled about the real estate. There was plenty of interesting grist to take home and think on.

 

There is German dialogue in the play, but more dominantly, there is Spanish spoken, particularly by the Bolivian gigolo, played with savage sensuality by David Valencia. There are some oblique strands of thought such as the idea of mole sauce made from human tears.

 

Angela Betizen's new play is big in themes, symbolism, cultural references and violence both contained and actual. It is set upon a vast open plan of stage with one wall of mirrored tiles off which lights reflect mercilessly into the eyes of the prompt-side audience.

 

There's a perspex wall on which the child draws, beautifully, the roosters which plague his dreams. The child should be a likeable character, but he, exquisitely performed by young Calin Diamond, is pitiable. There are no likeable characters in this play. They are strictly underbelly.

 

There is, however, some wonderful acting in this production directed by Leticia Caceres. The star, Colin Friels, is a joy to watch. Perhaps less at home as in glib Ockerdom, he comes alive and brings the show to life the moment he steps out as the German-Bolivian cocaine baron, Heinrich Barbie. It is a brilliant and chilling transformation. Again, in the character of the Serbian stonecutter, Bratislav, Friels delivers a superb capsule of character and culture. No matter which character he plays, from Aussie copper to German villain, the Friels body work is sublime. Simply put, he has the most exceptional physical grace, even in depictions of violence. 

 

Renato Musolino is compelling as the vile, bragging, coke-snorting Sydney drug king. He also is unforgettably poignant as the bare-arsed Kings Cross psych patient. Louisa Mignone could be  two different actresses, so effectively does she define the disparate characters of Scarlett and Sybille.  Tom Conroy plays the focal character of Jimmy, the family failure, the dupe, the mule, the drug king's servant brother-in-law. Most credibly, he creates one of the stage's great losers and, as written by Betzien, a loser who deserves to be a loser.

 

The script is still a bit overwritten with a tendency to reiterate to get the message through. But, seriously, the audience gets the Pert shampoo and conditioner joke straight off and it loses something being twice explained.  Similarly, when the unexpected fourth box is delivered, there are only so many times we need to be reminded that the fourth box is not expected. And so forth. Less is more.

 

While the lighting offends, the soundscape lifts, carries, and complements the action on the stage magnificently. Composed by The Sweats with Nate Edmondson as sound designer, it ranges from soft, strange rustling and rattling through rumbles and roars, thumps and thunders and wondrous percussive intensities. 

 

Mortido is a brave new work and an ambitious production which is what theatre is meant to be. Not all the audience stayed to the end on opening night but most certainly, all the audience took home interesting quandaries and memories of shining performances.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 20 to 31 Oct

Where: Dunstan Playhouse

Bookings: bass.net.au

 

Photography by Shane Reid