All at sea: Hannah Montgomery (right, as Gretchen) and Anya Destiney (as Maggie) form part of an impressive cast in a brilliant, and affecting, staging of Orca
The latest play being performed this week on stage at the Coulsdon Community Centre is not to be missed, says KEN TOWL
The orca is, in many ways, not what it seems.
Also known as the killer whale, it is no whale, but rather a species of dolphin.
It has never killed a human, except, occasionally in captivity, and there have been recent reports of them either playing with or battering boats.
In a play redolent with symbolism, a play that depicts a toxic (to say the least) patriarchal society, the orca, a marine animal that lives in matrilinear pods led by post-menopausal females, makes for the ultimate metaphor.
Theatre Workshop Coulsdon’s latest production, Orca, the symbols land in quick succession, standing in for everything that is hidden.
In a village rendered fearful of the orcas, villagers who either can’t or won’t say what they mean, the gaps, the silences, are filled with symbols. Everything stands for something else, something unspoken, unspeakable, the Dance, the Father, the Daughter, the Orca, the bloody gutted fish.
Play for today: Mike Brown (as Joshua) and Indiana Scorziello (Fan)
The cast is stripped down to five, easily the strongest cast I have seen at any amateur production. This is the cream of TWC’s talent. They are all worth a mention.
Indiana Scorziello impressed in last year’s ambitious production of Machinal.
Here, as Fan, she channels tragic, vulnerable innocence wrapped up in a mischievousness that only heightens the jeopardy that she is in.
As the danger she might be in becomes more apparent we, the audience, feel more and more powerless; we can only watch in horror.
Equally powerless in this village run by the Father (a palpably yet subtly menacing Richard Lloyd – there are no cartoon figures here) is Anya Destiney’s Maggie, a woman shunned by the village, a woman whose voice is not heard. It is a tough, complex role and Destiney masters it, adding layer upon layer of complexity.
Hannah Montgomery as the unfortunate Gretchen tells us so much using her physical presence as if to compensate for her character’s inability to communicate well by speech. She plays a woman who has been truly beaten down by her environment.
Father figure: Richard Lloyd
Finally, Mike Brown convinces as the hapless Joshua, a weak, failure of a man, branded a coward by Maggie. His betrayal of all of the women in his life hangs over him and all he can do is deny it to himself and strike out when it is impossible to avoid.
The scenery is stripped back too, and the sound, occasionally haunting wind instruments, is mostly just the sound of the sea.
All the focus is on the actors and their words, and the lack of them.
Consequently, this is a powerful and harrowing piece of theatre.
Seriously, you may well come out of it with a strong desire for a lie down or a powerful drink. As the programme, puts it, “You won’t be dancing out at the end filled with gaiety and lightness of spirit but we hope you’ll feel that you’ve seen a brilliant and important piece of theatre.”
I think it is an important piece of theatre.
It is both profoundly human and deeply political. It explores the way in which a corrupt elite can exploit arcana and ritual to divide, rule and oppress others. The tongue-tied apostate Maggie is like Winston Smith in 1984: she must learn not only to obey Big Brother, but to love him.
If you are of a resilient disposition, I recommend you go and see Matt Grinter’s Orca at TWC’s base at the Coulsdon Community Centre on Barrie Close just off the Chipstead Valley Road.
If you go, I suspect you will remember it for a while to come.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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