As published in the Sun-Herald.
Ladybird
Downstairs Belvoir Street
Until 12 April
Tickets $10-$29
Bookings (02) 9699 3444
Critic’s Rating 6/10
Entering the world of Russian playwright Vassily Sigarev’s Ladybird is like entering the world of a strife-torn housing estate in modern-day Sydney.
Dima (Ian Meadows) is a young man living with his alcoholic father on the barren outskirts of a forgotten town. What’s even worse is they live in a housing commission building overlooking a cemetery (which the locals call the house of the living and the dead).
On the eve of enlisting in the army to fight in Chechnya, Dima throws a party with his drugged-out mate Slavik (Eamon Farren), neighbour Lera (Sophie Ross), her cousin Julia (Yael Stone) and drug dealer (Adam Booth). On a mattress on the floor in a wasted-out stupor is his dad (Slava Orel).
This is a snapshot into the world of Putin’s Russia and the forgotten people left behind by the nation’s new elite. Conversations between these young characters are like incidental chatter you’d hear on any bus but with a few drinks the dark shadow of the cemetery slowly rises and they are faced with questions about the horrible situation they are in.
Director Lee Lewis has taken this Russian play, written only 5 years ago, and places it firmly within the world of fringe dwelling Australia. With extremely strong performances this is a production full of relevancy and timing. But its full affect is flawed by a set design far too overbearing, with mountainous amounts of garbage and flickering TV sets, distracting from a text already dripping in sad and haunting images.
At 70 minutes, Ladybird delivers a blunt reality check.
1 comments:
I found this production had a glimpse of brilliance in the "localising" of the language by Ian Meadows, it brought home the realities of australian life so effectively simply by adding "like" and "ay" somewhere in each sentance. But like you I was frustrated by the superflous AV on the tv sets and the conceit of the set. So too was I enormously annoyed by the herbal cigarettes. I wanted the party to smell like a party, not like a Tree Of Life store.
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