By Peter Maddern
Life asked Death: “Why do people love me but hate you?” Death replied, “Because you are a beautiful lie, and I am the painful truth”. A suitable follow up question for the program may well have then been – why do we relish images of both in at least equal proportion?
Erth’s puppets, guided by a middle aged human narrator, directed by Scott Wright and accompanied by songs from Murder Ballads by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds examines these issues in a dark, often violently confronting production at the Queens Theatre.
Our narrator is a somewhat sad loner who craves human interaction but seems only able to solve his lusts in violent spasms. The puppets that variously inhabit his life are sized from small (some as children) to adult and life size, some with erased, blank faces, others with smiles that become grotesque as the drama plays out.
Wright’s direction of Murder is sublime with the interaction of the ballads and the action spot on (the opening song with a cowboy figure on a bed both highly funny and troubling) and his use of the various backdrops – seemingly very tall hospital screens – most effective.
At the core, audiences need to go to appreciate the message and the artistry. On the latter, the puppetry is of a very high order, with the gyrations of the prostitute (that emerges from an old battered fridge early on) all too life like. The message about the prevalence and tolerance for violence in human societies – both present and past – is hammered home in often chilling scenes, though at times it was a challenge to work out exactly what was going on.
What was also a challenge was the stifling heat of this venue. It is a sad reflection on the priorities of our civic leaders that on the day they fork over another million or two to sporting codes for their profligate largesse to their advisers, PR people and the like for the $650m Adelaide Oval, events such as this, that can put Adelaide on the map, are held in hot boxes where only a series of domestic fans are available to break up the humidity. (Then there is the unfathomable brilliance of starting construction works on the Rundle Mall, footbridge and Victoria Square on the 10 or so biggest days of the year for our town (in terms of visitors at least) but don’t get me started on that!)
To be sure, audiences need to be ready for Murder (and not just well hydrated) with its complexities, strobe lighting and the like but Erth has produced a memorable production that will reward your indulgence. But if, when you get home after you strap yourself in for some latest police drama on the box without a second thought, then you may have missed the point.
Kryztoff Rating 3.5K
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