Persona is the name of a film made by legendary auteur Ingmar Bergman in 1966; a director said to have influenced every contemporary filmmaker from Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese to Stanley Kubrick and Pedro Almodovar. Adena Jacobs, Dayna Morrissey and Danny Pettingill have re-imagined his film for the stage, and transformed it into the masterpiece that is now showing at Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre.
The story is narrowly focused; very much like a magnifying glass over an ant – intensely detailed, and destined to end in horrific pain. What could potentially be quite a bland play about one nurse caring for a woman having a mid-life crisis (or perhaps a nervous breakdown, it’s never made clear) swiftly takes a turn towards sheer terror, plunging the audience into a stunned trance as slow conversations turn into panic attacks and clumsy violence.
Karen Sibbing is simply marvellous. Her performance as Alma, a young nurse who thought she was satisfied with her mediocre life until now, is genuinely horrifying to watch. In half an hour she transforms from a softly spoken, polite Swedish woman into a deranged mess. Bleeding from the nose and spittle flying from her mouth, she cries and yells uncontrollably, yielding to pent-up anxiety that has been repressed for years. At times she is wracked with paralysing fear, and stomps like a wooden doll whose only working joints are at the top of the legs and the elbows; but increasingly her maddened, furious state takes over, and she throws herself around the stage like a wild animal too hysterical to strike.
I haven’t let on why all of this happens, and that’s because Persona is a psychological thriller – knowing what happens would spoil it. But you need a hint at what goes on to whet your appetite, so that’s what I’m trying to supply here.
Meredith Penman is also brilliant, somehow oozing anxiety and sexiness with her powerfully silent performance. The part of Elisabeth Vogler must have been particularly difficult to work with – the character has no more than 20 words for the entire play. Yet she was mesmerizing. The whole audience might possibly have fallen in love with her… this reviewer certainly did!
Daniel Schlusser also had only a short appearance within which to shine, and a nugget of dialogue, but did so very well. He has a Kevin Spacey-like talent to one moment be a broken human being, yet the next stand at attention like a cold-blooded character in a period painting, with blankly staring, spine-chilling eyes.
Huge kudos also ought to be given to the highly professional backstage crew for lighting, sound design and other visuals. Again, as in a good cinematic thriller, these elements were handled with simplicity yet extraordinary effectiveness, making them all the more forceful. Sometimes we were deafened, sometimes blinded, and both were done with either sound or no sound, blazing lights or none at all. Beautiful. Props were also used minimally, making the actors and their performances all the more stark.
The second night of Persona was performed to a packed house, and there was good reason for it. This is dark and sinister theatrical entertainment at its best. It’s well worth catching during Belvoir’s short season.
Rating: 4 ½ stars out of 5
Persona
A Fraught Outfit production
Based on the film by Ingmar Bergman
Conceived by Adena Jacobs, Dayna Morrissey & Danny Pettingill
Director: Adena Jacobs
Translation: Keith Bradfield
Production Designer: Dayna Morrissey
Lighting Designer: Danny Pettingill
Sound Designer: Russell Goldsmith
Cast: Sean Campbell, Brandon Easson, Meredith Penman, Daniel Schlusser and Karen Sibbing
Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir, Surry Hills
24 July – 18 August
