Review: Derrida in Love

Derrida in Love by Timothy Daly
Ensemble Theatre
26 March 2007


Friday night theatre is always such a rush and I was running so late.

I madly got ready, walked quickly down to Central Station and suddenly remembered that I had left my money at home.

About turn and back up the hill, panting in my opening night theatre uniform, the black shirt.

7.10pm: I rush back out with fifty bucks in my pocket, just in case my companion and I decide to sneak off for a few after the show... or before. I rush up to Oxford Street madly trying to dodge the Friday night crowd of trannies, yobs and the general fiesta.

Bus, train and in twenty minutes I am exiting a cramped train full of teenagers rushing down to cause a bit of youthful havoc at Luna Park.

My companion sneaks a stubby in my hand - 'A traveller'. Brilliant.

The Ensemble Theatre venue is a gem in the theatre landscape of Sydney. Tucked away in Kirribilli, a stones throw away from the Prime Minister's Sydney residence, it has a most beautiful view looking over a shipyard cove.

The crowd at an Ensemble show is always in the upper age bracket and suddenly I am feeling a little young. This is the heartland of North Shore Sydney.

We shuffle, shuffle, shuffle in and take our seats in what would have to be one of the very best stages in the city. An intimate thrust stage with perfect sight lines and magnificent acoustics.

Faced with an ultra realist set of a bookshelf, a couch, a coffee table and decanters, I prepare myself for a lot of talking. But this production stars two of the most formidable actresses in Sydney and the anticipation of seeing them both on stage together breathes through the audience.

I must admit to knowing absolutely nothing about Jacques Derrida, the French 'deconstructionist philosopher' that this play is based on.

I must admit, that since seeing this show, I don't really know much more.

But Derrida could be anyone really. He could be a Hollywood star, an Australian Idol, a Rugby League player. He is merely a device to show the gullibility of a man, which on this occasion happens to be an academic.

And academics are easy targets with this crowd. They play on the media hype surrounding 'useless' research and foolish intellectuals that have nothing better to do than waste tax payers money.

You also have the academics academic wife who he shares an 'open' relationship with. Meanwhile, he's sleeping with a beautiful young student of his.

The academics academic wife happens to also be sleeping with the Vice Chancellor of the university who later becomes a trannie. Goodness, I've seen a lot of trannies tonight and the novelty is wearing thin.

For an Ensemble subscriber this is ripe stuff. Fine acting combined with tight direction and a script that sits comfortably within Kirribilli sensibilities.

I am less convinced. Characters change too quickly with little reason and if I was a young female university student, I would be absolutely appalled at the one-dimensional depiction of the young female university student.

But I am not their target audience.

I wander back out with my companion and we venture to the station. At central, we take in the goths, the homeless and the drunks and watch a bit of life theatre from the balcony of the pub.

What a different world people live in and only twenty minutes apart.



Photo: Jacki Weaver, Andrew Tighe, Anna Crawford and Lynette Curran
Image credit: Steve Lunam