By Peter Maddern
Anyone familiar with John Doyle’s rantings on television and radio, especially This Sporting Life, will instantly recognise him as the playwright for this somewhat extraordinary play. Not for his views about events on the paddock but on the issues in physics – where obscure things like the Higgs Boson particle or the way the atmosphere works constantly percolate up in his musings.
Vere (or Faith) is ostensibly about the impact of rapid on-set dementia on a brilliant mind and man. But at its core, and the substance that makes the play ‘extraordinary’ is that that sadness gives rise to the forum for a debate about beliefs, about people’s faith. Where much theatre is based around family feuds and human weaknesses, this is a slugfest about what we hold to be true, not between religions as they are mostly known but of beliefs, between the spiritual God bothering world and those devoted to a staunch and sober examination of science.
None of that is to dissuade anyone thinking of attending. To be sure, Vere is not for air heads but the play, in two distinct scenes, also captures much of Doyle’s trademark humour and its delivery is supported by a wonderful cast.
Most challenged and most to be credited is Paul Blackwell as Vere himself. This is a masterful display that deals with grappling with a nasty demise and the various moments during which ‘clarity’ and confusion have the upper hand in his mind. Neither Doyle nor Blackwell allow much time for overt melancholy but the struggles Vere faces are known to many in the lives of people we know around us. His mood swings around his humanity are the work of a fine actor at his best.
All other players occupy the roles of alternate characters across the two scenes, a clever device to emphasise Vere’s problems. Geoff Morrell is a delight as both a lecherous Vice Chancellor and as a devout but self-deluding Anglican minister, soon to father –in-law to Vere’s grandson. He exudes an almost unsettling self confidence that seems detached from his more visible foibles. Rebecca Massey shines after the interval as Katherine, Morrell’s faithful wife and fellow believer while Matthew Gregan has moments of delicious grottiness as the brilliant but socially retarded geek who invades the space of the lecturers’ reverie in the opening stanza.
Sarah Goodes directs with confidence and never allows the intense debate of the second half, that perhaps like some of the characters exceeds its welcome, to drag and Steve Francis’ occasional descents into ethereal compositions remind us when necessary that at some level this portrayal of dementia is rooted in a reality many in the audience will be all too familiar with (as indeed Doyle himself is).
As mentioned, there are moments in the second half where things tended to get a bit wobbly, with perhaps too many tangents being played out (Michael’s conversion being one that just wasn’t much explained or challenged). But Vere will prove a wonderful challenge and joy for all regular theatre goersand judging by the demographic of those attending on opening night, it may well come to introduce the theatre and especially the State Theatre to a new and younger audience.
Have faith that this is one show worth attending.
Kryztoff Rating 4K
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