AustLit

The doors opened to the Billy Brown Theatre and the audience manoeuvred towards their seats, eager for Queensland Theatre Company’s production of Motherland. Some popped up and down like Jack-in-the-boxes as others shuffled towards the middle of the rows, sounding a chorus of “excuse mes” that drowned out the delicate classical music. The actors then emerged and one by one they silently took to the stage, and still as statues, the three women and two men waited. The doors closed and the dimming of lights hushed any final conversations. Then it began: a memory, a photograph, a scream… darkness… silence. The striking of a match cut through the air, the audience on the edge of their seats, mesmerised and desperate to catch every word that escaped from the actors lips. And then… they were really desperate to hear what each actor was saying. Straining to distinguish the syllables from the sounds, some seasoned ticket holders not sure whether to turn their hearing aids up or down. We had been transported back to Russia, the year 1991. The military coup was in full force, endangering the characters’ lives, actor’s vocal cords and audience’s eardrums. Then descending from the stairs, a sixth actor? declared, “Sorry, this will not do.” Confused I checked the program, was this epic theatre? No, just technical issues.

Despite a preview night hiccup, Motherland written by Katherine Lyall-Watson and directed by Caroline Dunphy, was a wonderfully creative and sleek production that instantly captured the viewer’s imagination with its beautiful telling of three unique stories. Dunphy explains that upon first reading the play she found it “brilliantly overwhelming” and was driven to overcome the complex issue of staging the performance. One that featured distinct, but intertwined personal stories, and locations in three continents that extended over many decades (Dunphy 10). During the small interlude, while the technical issues were being resolved, Lyall-Watson was invited up from the audience to describe how she came to write the story: she wanted to provide the audience with a piece that kept them engaged and thinking (Lyall-Watson).

The minimalistic staging designed by Penny Challon provided the perfect canvas for a play that frequently changed era and location. Featuring a predominantly white colourway and simple timeless furnishings, including an array of seating options, boxes and a coat rack, the set had a very sleek, stylised and sophisticated composition while never feeling as though it was tied to any one location or decade (Lyall-Watson). The timeless nature of the set design, though visually pleasing and a perfect solution for a performance with a complicated and evolving setting, meant that the performance had to rely on other dramatic techniques to ground the scene and guide the audience through the play. Transitions were successfully achieved through the utilisation of lighting, paralinguistics and movement.

The lighting, designed by David Walters, enhanced the atmosphere of the play and helped to distinguish between the different locations. The majority of the play was set in cold wintery locations, where the lighting was muted and featured blue and purple tones. This was juxtaposed when Chris brought Alyona and Sasha to Australia. The lighting effects were bright with a slight yellow tone, which immediately gave the feeling of a fresh, sunny and tropical location; a distinctly Australian ambience.

Another element that helped distinguish the location and era was the use of paralinguistics. For example, when Alyona and her son Sasha, who were Russian, spoke to each other, the actors, Rebecca Riggs and Daniel Murphy, used a non-descript accent. However, when Chris, an Australian, spoke to Alyona, Riggs spoke broken English with a Russian accent (Lyall-Watson). The contrast created the illusion that Alyona and her son were speaking fluent Russian.

As each male actor played two characters it was essential that the roles be easily distinguishable while allowing them to quickly alternate between parts. Variations of tone, accent, pitch, etc., along with very minor costume adjustments and alterations to their posture and mannerisms, allowed the men to instantly switch between their two roles. The same technique was used to distinguish between Barbara Lowing’s character, Nina Berberova; as an elderly woman, whose voice was strained and gruff, and physically quite slow and stiff; and as a younger woman, who was livelier and more fluid in speech and movement.

A cleverly crafted scene, involving the characters of Alyona, Chris, Nell and Alexander, saw the two couples on a date with their respective partners, in their respective time periods and locations. Complications arose for the staging of the scene however, as the dates seesawed between the two time periods, with actor Peter Cossar cast to play both Chris and Alexander. Lyall-Watson wrote the scene so that the concluding line of one date became the beginning of the other, which meant that the physical transitions needed to be as smooth as the verbal. Dunphy’s brilliant resolution involved the three actors sitting on matching chairs facing the audience at the front of the stage, Cossar in the centre. It provided the illusion of the characters sitting across from their partner while also allowing the scene to switch back and forth between the dates without Cossar needing to reposition. Furthermore, this helped to connect the women’s stories and highlight similarities between them, resulting in a performance with greater depth of meaning.

All the decisions made in regards to staging, lighting and directing combined to produce a performance that was able to communicate the themes and personal stories of three incredible women. The play fulfilled Lyall-Watson's desire, as she stated during the interlude, to tell a story that would be mentally and emotionally provoking, a play that engages the audience and keeps them thinking (Lyall-Watson).