The Balmain Jesus
Produced by The Factory Space Theatre

Cast: Suzanne Hauser, Victor Kline, Penny Kidd, Kath Perry, Peter McAllum

Written By: Brenda Gottsche
Director: Roz Riley

Publicist: Troy Dodds (Troy Dodds Enterprises)

Australian Premiere: SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney. Thursday, December 9 2004.


The Lowdown:
Originally entitled The Fullham Jesus, this play re-located to Australia and re-named itself to suit an Australian audience. While the season sold well and the public enjoyed the show, reviews were not kind.


Website Review:
In Sam Shepard's plays there's a lot of violence, personal and physical. He admits it freely: his work is violent because it is about America ... "It's a tangible presence, you feel it everywhere in America. There's no need to be frightened of it. I find I can use it as a vehicle for other feelings." He confronts the audience with a view of America as a broken, fragmented, unhappy society. The thing is there are no apologies. It's all there bare assed naked, take it or leave it.

The Balmain Jesus is really is a play on ideas rather than characters. First off, we have no trouble figuring what the play is about. The conflicts are clearly drawn and the progress of events flows through without a problem.

On the distaff side, when conflict swings around ideas, there is very limited opportunity for angry confrontation, projective vomiting, gratuitous sex and/or violence. So what sort of comedy is this? In reality this is comedy in a minor key, a comedy of manners.

The events revolve around the comings and goings of a wooden sculpture, the Broken One. Sallie (Suzanne Hauser) adopts the piece (or at least part of it) as the symbol for spiritual rebirth for Balmain. We follow Sallie and her friend Angie (Penny Kidd) through her trials and tribulations as she decides to lease the statue (or part of it). She gets thoroughly screwed financially by the very savvy creator of the piece, Helen played by Kath Perry. Rounding out the male side of the equation are Sallie's husband Martin (Victor Kline), the Reverend Ray played by Peter McAllum and the mainly mute figure of the Props Man played by Will Perez-Ronderos.

In a sense the play is framed somewhere between a soap opera and theatre of the absurd. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go far enough in either direction. It doesn't take enough risks. Getting back to Sam Shephard, in one of his plays the lead male dresses as a chicken trying to translate himself to a new level. That is really something which challenges our credulity.  Let's say it's freaky.

The Balmain Jesus suffers because of the limit of its range. The highs and lows are not terribly involving. The conflicts do not excite. There is no roller coaster ride. It is too predictable and too centered on areas which do not lend themselves to identification and sympathy with the audience.

What does work, is the interchange between the actors. The performances were, on the whole, consistent in their attack, energetic and playing in true ensemble feeling that is open and accessible to the audience. What makes a performance lift however, are variations, taking of risks and shades of give-and-take which add spontaneity and fire. This needs exploring.

There are odd moments when the play centres on conflicts within characters and the conflicts between one another. When this happens, the play takes wing, the actors lift and the characters become more well rounded and engrossing. Unfortunately this happens too infrequently. Most of the narrative is flat in following the travels of the statue of the Fallen One.

Let us draw back a little from the play and take a look at the framework in which it is set. We are fortunate in that our suburban landscape is not populated with the same level of violence which is shown in American pop culture or in fact exists in their cities. At the same time however, we do have our conservative intolerance, we do imprison people because they come from the wrong ethnic background and we do support violent invasions of foreign countries without consulting their people. In other words, we have our guilts and our ghosts.

There is plenty to wrestle with and plenty to write about. Plays that engross us are centered in conflicts where the characters show their hate, show their susceptibility to violence. Plays, good plays, great plays are not about good people. They are about good people and bad people who screw up and cause problems. It is the same for comedy or tragedy. At the start there is a monumental screw up. The rest of the play is spent trying to resolve the situation.

In summary,The Balmain Jesus does not follow the classic arc of narrative development, building the conflict, leading to climax of conflicting forces followed by some sort of resolution or resolving of conflict. Than in itself is not a problem.

The alternative structure offered is too linear and repetitive with its themes. Conflicts can be greater. Emotions can be blacker. The risk takers can be more frenetic -- not all the time, but at least often enough to fire things up and get our interest focused on what is happening.

The play wears its heart on its sleeve. The emotions and the characters we can relate to, but when it comes right down to it, you have to ask the question: Is it a good play? Is it a great play? The answer to both questions is no. But in saying that, we should say it gets close and sometimes the performances almost take us there.

So 3 out of 5 for effort -- but to the writer, next time write more from gut, tearing visceral conflict. Write as catharsis. Write hag-ridden with fear, with pain, uncertainty and conflict. Remember, we writers are a neurotic lot, otherwise why we would we bother to write at all?


Production Shots:
None Available


Further Information:
None Available