indi

Ashes To Ashes
By Harold Pinter
Directed by Sam Strong
Cast: Sara Gleeson and Simon Stone

Venue: Fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
Season 15-24 March
Bookings 9662 9966

Last night I was lucky enough to attend a wonderful production of Harold Pinter’s Ashes To Ashes at fortyfivedownstairs in the city. Pinter’s writing is oblique and enigmatic at the best of times and this one act play is certainly no exception.
In this review I can only give you my interpretation of the piece, yours would undoubtedly be different because the symbolism employed by the playwright, by its nature, can only be interpreted by the individual, relative to experience.
On the face of it, the play is about a man and a woman, Rebecca and Devlin, who are possibly married, but certainly in a relationship of some duration. Just prior to the beginning of the play Rebecca has let slip some details of a former lover, about whom, Devlin has never heard and the play opens at the start of a spousal interrogation. Rebecca, played by Sara Gleeson, is in turn vague, petulant, charming, vicious, sweet and evasive. Devlin, played by Simon Stone, is like a man with a rotten tooth. He is unable to leave the subject alone and worries at it until the whole decayed root is laid bare; a shocking trauma in Rebecca’s past that shatters the couples apparent domestic comfort.
Both actors deliver superb performances, despite being a little young for the roles in which they are cast. Stone, who we have seen in some heavyweight Australian films such as, Jindabyne and Kokoda, plays the reserved academic with sincerity
and intelligence. I felt a great deal of compassion for him in his vain attempts to make a connection with a woman who was becoming a stranger before his eyes.
Gleeson, who you may recognise from various guest roles on television, was extraordinary. This role was a playwrights gift to an actor and she did not squander it. I have seldom, if ever, seen a performance of this calibre on an Australian stage.
She plays the part as if filmed in extreme close up, with all the subtlety and precision that would demand. She is utterly heartbreaking in this role and if speech is indeed the “offspring of thought”, Gleeson proves it here.
Although Rebecca’s story appears to be one of a holocaust survivor, the script is enigmatic enough to be laid over any human atrocity, from Hitler’s Germany to Bosnia to Vietnam to Uganda to Chile, the list goes on. Pinter super-imposes Rebecca’s memories onto ordinary, everyday, safe places, issuing a warning that what has happened elsewhere could just as easily happen here. However, Director Sam Strong cleverly resists any urge to signpost. He keeps the actors firmly anchored in the reality of the moment and with the stark set and subtle lighting leaves any interpretation in the hands of the audience
Pinter claimed that the inspirational source of this play was the autobiography of Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect. A highly civilised, model of academia, he was also capable of great cruelty and these traits are mirrored both in the description of the shadowy ex-lover and Devlin. Speer however, became known as “the Nazi who said sorry” the only high ranking Nazi to confess the guilt of the party and express remorse. In using Speer as a model, perhaps Pinter is allowing us a glimmer of hope. That within man’s enormous capacity for brutality lies an equal capacity to learn and change.
Ashes To Ashes runs for 45 minutes and begins at 7:30 sharp. I urge you to go. Take a friend, take a partner, take both. Make a night of it and and go out to dinner - it is a play that requires discussion afterwards. You won’t be sorry.