Two men stumble into an apartment, seemingly inebriated. One is quite brash and opinionated, the other somewhat whiny and unable to manage his booze-induced condition. A dialogue, evolving between the two men, gives hints as to their identity and the era they live in; they are none other than Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and they are living in the Roaring Twenties, alternatively known as the Jazz Age.
Amadeo Astorino’s Jazz Angel is a theatrical vignette focusing on the fascinating yet torrid relationship between Hemingway and Fitzgerald during their expat stint in France. The American literary icons are depicted as self-indulgent and somewhat confused by the direction of their careers.
Even before the shoe dropped as to the identity of the two characters on stage, it was apparent that the brawny one was Ernest Hemingway, embodied by Lliam Amor, who walked the walk and talked the talk as a very credible Hemingway. Hemingway displays an almost fraternal dismay over Fitzgerald’s lack of backbone with his writing distraction/wife Zelda; Amor projects the character’s raw energy convincingly.
The role of F. Scott Fitzgerald was played by Justin Hosking, who aside from sporting a very credible US Midwest accent, also portrayed a great lush. So much so, that it was only when Hosking swung back and forth from sober to drunk during one of the scenes, that it was apparent he was in actuality quite dry.
Though Jazz Angel is mainly about Hemingway and Fitzgerald, the play is balanced out by Katherine Innes’ Lulu, who plays the girl-next-door, an incarnation of the important female characters who were instrumental in the two men’s lives. Lulu, who at first does not appear to be terribly crucial to the storyline – introduced as an evening ‘love interest’ – is surprisingly revealed as the connecting fibre, shedding light on the underlying demons tormenting both Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Lulu seems to be the Angel of Death, the past, the present, and lost love, all in one.
From its opening scene Jazz Angel suggests an elementary depiction of a friendship between two famous men during the Jazz Age, but it delves much further than that. The play allows the audience to scrutinise the complex layers of the men’s personalities, relationships and experiences (i.e. Hemingway’s romance with nurse Agnes von Kurowsky) which were instrumental in their lives and careers.
Jazz Angel is well written, the dialogue fluid and entertaining; a thoroughly enjoyable piece of theatre.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Birnam Wood Theatre and akAA Productions presents
Jazz Angel
By Amedeo Astorino
Director: Shannon Woollard
Featuring Lliam Amor, Justin Hosking and Katharine Innes
Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne
7 – 18 August
