Rumpus. 23 Nov 2022
Medieval Morality plays. Renaissance humanism-infused drama reflecting new worlds through the lens of the older.
Both ground Coldhands implacably, whatever one may think.
The clear throws to fictional fantasy and science fiction cannot hide this intriguing work’s double entwining threads of didacticism and mystical yearning.
Coldhands declares, nay teaches, a truth to our world about climate change and human connection which it needs to know before it even knows it, let alone how to follow it.
Dora Abraham’s text is set in a world where gold has disappeared. There is a force eradicating it and any opposing its power.
Three characters inhabit Ellanna Murphy’s stripped back set with clear allusions to dry, bony dessert featuring sky-reaching bone white claw-hand sculptures and ochre sands. They are a mother (Bonet Leate), hand gloved daughter ((Danielle Lim) and a boy hunter (Sam Lau.)
Mother and daughter are constantly on the run, spiritually sustained by tales she reads from a book. Stories of hope.
When the malevolent force they run from captures the mother and leaves the child, the child is unexpectedly rescued, reluctantly, by the boy hunter.
It’s the relationship between this reluctant hunter and the girl with a mystery to reveal which forges the heart of Abraham’s script.
The allegory of gold / balanced environment / human interconnection is utterly clear. Boy hunter’s ambivalence to direct involvement in the girl’s plight is a clear defence mechanism.
Abraham’s dialogue is beautiful and given great service by the cast.
It is a dialogue encouraging connection to stories; hopes that can be real.
Zola Allen’s direction is focused on ensuring the allegoric poeticism of Abraham’s dialogue lands where it should, through the medium of Danielle Lim’s fervent, warm performance, which drives Coldhands start to finish. The one who can make gold. One whose hands grow colder every time she does.
David O’Brien
When: 22 Nov to 4 Dec
Where: Rumpus 100 Sixth Street Bowden
Bookings: eventbrite.com.au
