Court Theatre Review- The Cape
August 8th 2008 06:10
The Cape
THE FORGE: 4 July - 2 August 2008
Monday to Saturday 8pm
Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes (no interval)
by Vivienne Plumb
Directed by Elizabeth O'Connor
COMEDY/DRAMA | NZ | 2006
Language may offend.
1096 kms.
4 guys.
1 car.
Mo, Jordyn, Eb and Arthur are on a trip from Wellington to Cape Reinga. For four kiwi guys stuck between fun and responsibility, rules and freedom, life and death, getting to The Cape could be the most important voyage of their lives - or the road trip from hell...
What starts as a journey of drink, drugs and distractions becomes a rite of passage and a celebration of life, hope and friendship. Travel to a leaping place of the spirit.
The Cape, Vivienne Plumb's new play, takes us on a road trip with four post-adolescent refugees from screwed up families, escaping their crap lives in Wellington. Cape Reinga, at the northern tip of New Zealand, is their destination. In Mâori mythology, it is the point of departure for spirits leaving this world for the next.
A cape also conjures up images of flourish, wizardry, bravado and something to hide behind: all valid resonances for the play that unfolds. It is 1994 and these are four sons of 'flower children', 'sexual revolutionaries' and various 'counter-culture' survivors.
"The road less travelled is not the road for me!" declares hyper-active Eb (Eli Kent) as three of them wait for the fourth to join them. In this context he is expressing homophobia, as he will many times more. He may or may not know he is quoting Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' but probably saw 'The road less travelled' on the title page of his mum's copy of M Scott Peck's 'spiritual growth' best seller.
With a head full of knowledge but little wisdom with which to apply it, he is may also be unaware he has implied that he is a conformist. How could he be when "I hate ... [insert just about everything in the world around him, beginning with his old man]" is his constant refrain, albeit counterpointed with declarations of love for his brother and friends? Focused as he is on a past that has done him wrong, and stewing as he is in his own juice, his fantasy of going to drama school seems just that.
The mate obliged to receive Eb's rant - one of the many rants Eb will compulsively let off, like stink bombs, as they travel north - is Arthur (Rawiri Jobe). His dream of moving on from dope-dealing to owning and operating a chain of car parks could possibly be be more realistic. Meanwhile he is providing the transport, and is the only licensed driver for their trip to the Cape.
Asleep on the car seat behind them is "varsity" student Mo (Michael Whalley), the instigator of the trip, who is not well. It takes his student friend Jordyn (Leon Wadham), whose mother is a nurse, to see that his regular throwing up is caused by more than a hangover. But Mo doesn't want special treatment or attention ...
Thirty-minutes in to the 90-minute journey, as alcohol, dak, LSD and heavy metal 'music' take their tolls, the quartet's aimless obsessions and mindless boy-games cannot help but remind most of us of times we've been straight but stuck with stoners or drunks and wishing we weren't. Their banter, improvised poetry, game-playing and less-than-profound pronunciations oscillate authentically between tedious and painful.
But it does seem clear that playwright Plumb and director Conrad Newport have chosen to challenge us with this relentless authenticity in order to press the buttons that will ensure we connect this with our own real worlds. Just because these boys are trying to escape their realities, that doesn't mean we can.
And nor, of course, can they finally escape themselves, each other and what life is throwing up for them. As their vulnerabilities begin to show, and as we come to understand what's really going on, it would be a hard-hearted person indeed who didn't want to stay to find out where they'd end up. After the breakdowns come the breakthroughs. The trip becomes a journey that is to a good end.
Designer Ross Gibbs sets the action against a white cyclorama with car seats providing the vehicle and wheeled boxes allowing for an en-route picnic table, Wendy House, café, tent, etc. Jennifer Lal's white lighting adds to the general bleakness - the road they experience is all desert - until sunrise greets them at the Cape.
Also warming, in the hope it brings, is the boys' ability to focus, at last, on a wider horizon. There is pathos, too, in the implications for Mo. And just in case the imagery of two oceans meeting to point the way ahead becomes too precious, we are treated to a comic spectacle that at once brings Eb back to earth and offers a weird kind of redemption for a serious wrong he has done to Mo.
Vivenne Plumb has scripted the characters, ethos and argot of her late son's generation with extraordinary accuracy. With the sure hand of a seasoned writer she has ensured each character has a past and future that meet in the present to clear dramatic effect, so that all their sound and fury will finally signify something.
Michael Whalley's Mo is most eloquent in his unspoken thoughts and feelings. Leon Wadham's Jordyn is almost heroic in confronting his truth and claiming it. Rawiri Jobe is totally convincing as Arthur. Eli Kent's Eb gets right in our faces and up our noses before he reveals his fragility. Together, with Corrine Simpson operating lights and sound, they take us on a memorable journey.
On opening night, those currently of the characters' age and stage, those who had been there in the 90s, and those who are parents of that generation or were their teachers, were all excited by The Cape's authenticity. (net sourced)
I wasn't too sure what to make of the play when I was given the tickets and was in two minds about going as didn't think it was really my thing. But once the play started and I got drawn in with the life drama's of the characters and the great acting by all four of the players on stage and I was really glad I had gone. For such a small stage and limited props, I found the basis of the story very topical (as my friend and I had been talking about some of the same topics as discussed in the play), the acting was very good and found myself intrigued as to where each character development was leading.
Overall I really enjoyed this and would recommend it as well worth a look.
kiwiauthor rating 8/10
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