Liberty Equality Fraternity - Review

Liberty Equality Fraternity

by Geoffrey Atherden

Ensemble Theatre

Director: Shannon Murphy

Designer: Michael Hankin

Lighting / AV Designer: Verity Hampson

Sound / AV Designer: Stephen Toulmin

Cast 

Helmut Bakaitas

Caroline Brazier

Andrew Ryan 

http://ensemble.com.au

Reviewed by Benjamin Oxley 

Power. Privacy. Profiling. 

Without humour, the subject of interrogation fills us with fear, our every move tracked on close circuit video and trace audio. Here, Atherden's work brings it into brittle focus: building frustration between the sexes, his trainee secret operative versus her libertarian housewife. Gen Y Nerd asking questions of a nominal activist. 

According to a UK Independent from 2005, "Suspects can be held for four hours, which can be increased to 24 hours on application to a magistrate. After that period, suspects are charged or released. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation can hold suspects for up to 14 days under a warrant issued by a federal judge". It can happen. It does and will continue to be a factor in our lives.

Strip away the situation, and you have the playwright's mastery of comic structure. Perhaps the greatest achievement is that our interest is maintained for the length of a movie. Without ads, or breaks. Carefully placed interludes help us to digest the drama. Subtle lighting and sound design create clever relief from the awkward encounter.

Two central characters have several conversations at once, arriving at different conclusions. For us in the audience, we can see, or should I say hear the 'accident' approaching. How much equality is there in the tacit reading of the two protagonists of each other? Even music tells us their difference. 

Orlagh (Caroline Brazier) holds this interview room duel together with careful changes of emotion and reflection. Her timing secures a remarkable platform for 'Archi', played by Andrew Ryan. He handles the difficult moments well, but gives way to Brazier in the climaxes. It is a battle of wits, binary logic against bourgeois brains. Bland v bright. 

'Dr Voldemort' is the more acceptable face of covert operations. Helmut Bakaitas measures his lines and actions as he deftly pours coffee. It is a study in calculated bureaucracy. The strength of the final sequence is the swift direction to the endgame: how to resolve the tension?

The final ploy is at once hilarious and chilling. I really enjoyed this intimate piece. On reflection, I'm not sure I will "like" much on Facebook again. You will be very cautious using the internet after seeing this play.