Review: The Narcissist

The Narcissist by Stephen Carleton
Sydney Theatre Company and La Boite Theatre Company
Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House


It is too simple to think of the narcissist as someone in love with himself. One can detest oneself intimately and still be a narcissist.

The diaries of Kenneth Tynan


The narcissist suffers from too much inner dialogue. The eye of one's consciousness is forever looking at one's own action ... The narcissist is not self absorbed, as much as one self absorbed in studying the other. The narcissist is the scientist and the experiment in one ... It is not love of the self but dread of the world outside the self which is the seed of narcissism.

Norman Mailer on Henry Miller


A play entitled 'The Narcissist' has the potential to be a fascinating study and commentary on our self-absorbed urban society. Even as a comedy, it could get its hands dirty and throw around seeds of thoughts and ideas that lift the lid on material possession, self-interest and the quest for solitude.

But The Narcissist by Stephen Carleton does none of that, avoids the big questions and delivers up a Brisbane based comedy that is far too light to really impress.

Political spinner Xavier (Sandro Colarelli) is trying to get a local candidate elected in a sudden bi-election somewhere in Brisbane. As a gay man he is prepared to forego a lot of his values for a clear political purpose and climbing what Mark Latham might have called the 'ladder of opportunity'.

In fact, the play makes the broad assumption that Xavier really has no values and is only interested in material and social gain. His apartment, where all the action plays out is decked out in a type of Andy Warhol series of prints with Xavier as the key subject. It is probably more vanity than narcissism, but in this play that doesn't really matter.

His friends are suitably selfish as well, providing a type of situation comedy feel to the play. Bronwyn (Andrea Moor) is the slightly alcoholic older single female handbag who comes in and out of the apartment and usually heads straight to the bar to pour herself another vodka and something.

Xavier's flatmate is the younger hetero, but effeminate, Satchel (Jonathan Brand) whose aspiration is to get onto the television programme that is king of all vanity, Big Brother.

To provide even more situation comedy, Xavier and Andrea set up a challenge for themselves - to 'bag a man' before New Year's Eve and to prove that they both still have it and are not getting too far beyond their middle age years.

Then in walks Jesse (James Stewart) an old flame of Xavier's from his university days. Xavier might have had a bit of luck for the challenge if not for the fact that Jesse is now getting married to Y'landah (Judy Hainsworth) who we are introduced to as an ultra-conservative Liberal Party voting Christian who is a compulsive truth-teller.

For some reason which I still can't work out, Jesse and Y'landah re-enter Xavier's life. Polar opposite people who have nothing in common and who have no ties or responsibilities. Add to the mix that Y'landah screams every time she hears the word brown (or anything associated with the colour brown) or gags when she hears anything to do with anal sex and you have a rather perplexing set of realities with which to frame the comedy.

By the second half not much changes apart from the fact that Y'landah isn't a compulsive truth-teller but is rather a compulsive liar who has made up her condition regarding the colour brown as well as her anal sex reflexes.

The central problem of the play is that the characters are under-developed to the point none of them can be a narcissist. There are elements of vanity, but if you want narcissism you would be better heading off to the local library and picking up a copy of Moliere's The Miser.

The central problem of the comedy is that the reality of the situations and the characters is far too thin to utilise that integral part of any comedy - the element of surprise.

All the performances are extremely able with not a single bad note from a very capable ensemble - and director Ian Lawson and designers Greg Clarke, Carolyn Emerson and Guy Webster do a great job transferring the play from Brisbane to the difficult space of the Drama Theatre.

But it is the conceit of play that is the problem and when you come to think of it, Mark Latham would be a far more interesting (and probably hilarious) subject matter for a real play about narcissism.



Until 4 October 2008
Tickets $28-$77
Bookings(02) 9250 7111
www.sydneyoperahouse.com