Trevor, Red Stitch, Wednesday August 3rd 2016
For those new to my blog I write about the holistic experience of attending the theatre. I buy my own tickets. So if you want a re-telling of the story please refer to the links for further information or for further insights. Note, that I may provide different links for repeated main words or phrases. I write for my memories of what I have seen, and is more of a stream of consciousness."Trevor" by Nick Jones is a play presented by Red Stitch. This play did not receive the laughs that I was expecting and I can understand why.
"Trevor" is a very dated type of drawing room comedy with a supposed new twist having a man play a chimpanzee. There is nothing new about this type of theatre where actors are talking in contrasting languages to be understood.
There is a lack of drama in the writing. The actors do the best with quite a laboured script. It is something that was presented so frequently at drama festivals around Australia in the 1970's and 1980's. Scripts including Peter Shaffer's "Black Comedy" had more wit in them back then and still stand up as funny today. (Note the main joke in "Black Comedy" comes from the visual humour of the natural action occuring when the lights are off, compared to the characters struggling to see each other when the stage is lit up.)
"Albert" by Richard Harris is another play and where the actors talk in different languages to each other. We as the audience can understand them talking in English but the three characters try to understand each other's foreign language. I have seen each of these plays many times and are very funny even when performed by ordinary actors.
"Trevor" also uses this device of a chimpanzee and owner communicating with each other. Though we can hear them speaking in English they cannot understand each other. Plus other characters including Morgan Fairchild try to communicate with Trevor the chimpanzee. The playwright Nick Jones could learn from both Peter Shaffer and Richard Harris in constructing a drama that unfolds rather than envelopes an audience into tedium. There are times when the dialogue becomes babble of words to give us the perspective of the listener struggling to understand.
Thankfully we witnessed the skill of a very actor Rory Kelly who physically transformed into Trevor the chimpanzee. This physicality could have been utilised more in Act One as Act Two Rory Kelly' physicality was more pronounced. Maybe it was a directorial decision for the audience to question if the chimpanzee was more human in Act One.
Andrea Swifte played Trevor's "mommy" Sandra with a fine balance between normalised behaviour and an eccentric woman. I found her accent occasionally dropped out. Her relationship and connection with Rory Kelly as Trevor created a semblance of truth and honesty.
The neighbour Ashley was played by Eva Seymour who was totally believable until the baby dropped out of a shelf. Her objective to retrieve her baby was completely diminished by the lack of hysteria. Ask any mother how they would react if their baby fell off a shelf. No normal person would put a baby on a shelf. To add to her desperation the chimpanzee putting her baby on a shelf should have set off alarm bells. If this was an accident that the baby fell from the shelf the cast needed to play their objectives to achieved their goals more honestly. The audience gasped in horror at our performance when the baby fell. I think it would have been more realistic for Trevor to hide the baby under the lounge cushions as he made this his base. This is one reason why actors do improvisation work.
In one of the casts of "Blood Brothers" in London's West End the mother forgot her prop which was integral to a major scene. How did she react? She said something to the effect "I've got something for you. A locket and I'll give it to you later". I heard this story life from one of the brothers in this said production and this very named performance.
The other cast supported the production to varying degrees of success.
Kevin Hofbauer played Pa and Jerry. He played being uncomfortable in Trevor's company, during the questioning scene, with honesty. One of the funnier moments in the play was when Jerry was stabbed by the tranquilliser dart. Kevin Hofbauer's gradual fall was terrifically timed for realism and comedy.
Angela Kennedy played Morgan Fairchild with moderate success. She could have copied the pose of the cutout version on a number of occasions. Her gown was a glamorous costume by Adrienne Chisholm.
The costumes worked better than others.
The haircut for the cop Jim played by Andrew Gilbert was totally wrong and his costume looked ridiculously cartoon-esque. Both hair and costume detracted from his role.
Lighting by Daniel Anderson created mood and distinguished between the reality and Trevor's memory of working with Morgan Fairchild.
The finale tag scene was unnecessary as it did not add anything to the story. The exit of Ashley left us perplexed as to her baby's health situation. We felt that the play could have been stronger had it ended with Sandra locked in the cage (slightly reminiscent of a "Twilight Zone" "Children's Zoo" episode at the zoo!).
Overall Denis Moore has done a reasonable job in directing "Trevor" with a very ordinary script.
The Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager, Jacinta Anderson and Jasmine Persse require special mention as I assume they re-set the props for each performance. There is so much action with props in this play that the actors need confidence that they have been re-set accurately. (It is the actor's responsibility to check their props before a show but they must work with the "Props" department.
I would recommend reading "Ape House" by Sara Gruen for more drama..
"Trevor" only obtained a 6/10.
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