Image: The Floating World (supplied).
The Floating World’s brash and bawdy politically-incorrect banter flags Australia’s less multicultural past in a play not for the fainthearted. In Griffin’s new version, the script and action unfolds at a cracking pace.
The real meat and potatoes in this deceptively slapstick serve is Romeril’s study of horrific details from World War II Singapore. These are retold by an Aussie survivor dangerously en drunken route to Japan on a not so cheery Cherry Blossom Cruise.
An entropic display of untreated post-traumatic stress disorder pitched against the rhythm of the cruise ship routine brings an uncomfortable audience aboard for quite a rocky ride in altered reality. The challenges of Romeril’s short scene structure and demands of machine-gun like text delivery are expertly handled here.
This production uses a minimal set and lighting design including buzzing fluorescent tubes with showtime spots. Reiterated and almost subliminal sound effects build tension. Below this a dozen great solo and ensemble actors bring the real, imaginary and remembered to life.
The trio of passengers playing ex-AIF man Les, his wife Irene often laden with Women’s Weeklies and malapropisms and the calmer foil of a veteran British navy man are vividly painted with social accuracy of character and accent by Peter Kowitz, Valerie Bader and Tiny Llewellyn-Jones.
Timeless motives of damaged servicemen, antipodean isolation, and self-medicated near insanity splash below the veneer of the drama’s everyday and exaggerated holiday life. We are made successfully seasick by the cast’s calculated rendering of the demons driving Les Harding.
Brilliant technique is shown by all cast in the sharp scenes and character shifts. None more however than in Kowitz’s extended final monologue, where contrasts of tempo, timbre, expression and form elevate his slice of life character into a kaleidoscopically crafted mouthpiece for suffering.
This finely wrought production deserves its extension to a suburban season. Its grisly examination of our war history and the human debris from any conflict are timely and relevant reminders for all Australian residents in the twenty-first century.
4 stars
‘The Floating World’. Griffin Theatre Company. Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. Wed Nov 20, 7.30pm
