Private Lives. "Closer" by Patrick Marber. State Theatre. [review]
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Date
1999-09
Authors
Bramwell, Murray Ross
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Publisher
Adelaide Review
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Abstract
In Closer there are few pipes and timbrels but there's plenty of mad pursuit. Everybody gets to lead and then to follow. Everybody gets a chance to win and everybody loses. Dan, living with Alice, now wants Anna who takes Larry but turns to Dan. Larry and Alice become allies and lovers until those who spurn them want them back. The key words are - apparently- truth and honesty, but often enough infidelity and confession triggers only more recrimination and revenge. Closer often proves to be an ironic title. These people know how to get inside each other's heads- particularly the men behaving badly- but intimacy is another matter.
In this production for State Theatre, director Benedict Andrews brings a stylish intelligence to Marber's text. Justin Kurzel's design for the Space is a study in restraint.
Mark Pennington's lighting bathes the stage exposing the players every move while the music, by Max Lyandvert, alternates between pulsing bass and drum samples and a vibrant, Balanescu-like string quartet.
Description
Keywords
Theatre Reviews, Drama Reviews, Theatre, Drama, Space, Leeanna Walsman, Rhondda Findleton, Paul English, Syd Brisbane
Citation
Bramwell, Murray 1999. Private Lives. Review of "Closer" by Patrick Marber. 'The Adelaide Review', September, no.192, 30-32.