Presented by Adelaide Festival
Reviewed Thursday 9th March 2012
Inspired by the Strugatsky brothers' science fiction novel of the same title, this play explores the idea of a god who merely observes from a distance, suggesting that we, too, turn a blind eye to things that we do not want to know about, like people trafficking and enforced prostitution. In this work there is a god, and his representative, but the audience is placed in the position of that representative as well, and asked to consider whether, being directly faced with events, we will still sit by idly as mere observers.
The work is directed by Kornél Mundruczó, better known as a film director, and this leaks over into the performance with a hand held video camera being used to project live action onto screens around the area. This is the only view that we have of what is happening inside a second truck, that is hidden from the audience. The one truck that we see, side on, has a soft side which is pulled aside like a curtain, revealing the inside of the truck, effectively becoming a conventional theatrical box set. One end has a number of three-level bunk beds as sleeping quarters and the other end is a sweatshop, where the girls are put to work sewing garments, copies of brand name clothes.
At the start a young man stands atop the truck and converses with a projected image of an older man, sitting in a boat on a quiet waterway, who tells him that his job is to watch, record, but not get involved. The young man climbs down and tries to comply with that order.
Inside the truck we meet the other characters, who seem to be under the command of a woman referred to as 'Mammy Blue'. Three girls arrive and we realise that they work in the sweatshop, but are also prostitutes. One of the men is a doctor, his job to care for the girls and ensure that they have no infections. All seems amicable enough, until a 'special' client takes one of the girls into the second truck, intending to make a very specific sado-pornographic film. It transpires that his son is one of the truck's residents and he is using the girls in order to get revenge on his father for the death of his sister.
The work took casualties. The first walk out came just at the end of the client's sadistic attack on the first prostitute to go to the other truck, tying her naked, face down, her head over a toilet, then leaving her back red and raw from dripping boiling water onto her and scalding her. This was followed moments later by Mammy Blue, forcing her to admit that she had done it herself, in order to protect the client, a politician. There were occasional walk-outs to come, at other points throughout the performance.
A second girl must take her place, with worse to come. When the third girl is sent in to complete the film, the young man can no longer remain aloof from it all and do nothing but watch,and so he acts, taking revenge on all of those responsible for, or involved in what has happened, and saving the third girl, who is sisxteen and pregnant, as the first girl who is in serious need of medical attention.
This is a raw and powerful piece, graphically exposing the horrors of the European sex trade, and includes nudity, simulated sexual intercourse and violence to shock audiences from their complacency. Attempting to reset the work in Australia fails, though, and it would have been better left as a trafficking operation from eastern to western Europe. How a truck full of people got here from Hungary, and why they are driving around in it, makes no sense.
There is a sex trade in Australia too but, unlike Europe, it is not possible to just drive a truck across borders. Here, Asian girls are convinced to come here in search of a husband and a better life, then find that they have been tricked. We also have rather a different political system. Comparing some of the European systems to ours is somewhat akin to comparing a gangland knife fight with an episode of the Goon Show. Some of the political implications are, therefore, lost on local audiences.
This is a piece that will have people talking, but I am certain that a good percentage will be saying uncomplimentary things, not always necessarily due to the intense content. There are technical issues The production is partly in Hungarian, with some rather dodgy subtitles that are more confusing at times than enlightening, and partly in English, but the unfamiliar accents are often hard to understand, which does not make it easy to follow.
People sitting towards the rear find heads getting in the way as the action goes to and fro across the playing area, and nothing much at all can be seen beyond the first few rows when actors are at ground level.
The bottom part of the one large screen was obscured by audience heads, and the small screens above and around the 'stage' were too small at a distance to see much. The hand held camera work also made things difficult as it waved about wildly, and the video kept breaking up, giving only occasional stable sections. The audience were expected to piece the action together.
It is impossible to know whether those who walked out did so because of all of the above shortcomings made it just too hard to follow the story and understand what was happening, or whether it was the extreme sexual depravity and violence displayed in the production that affected them.
All that aside, there were some very stirring performances by the cast, and some very fine harmonies when, for no apparent reason, the entire cast suddenly slipped out of character and sang trite old pop songs. This was a bold choice for this Festival
Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor, Glam Adelaide.
Adelaide Festival – Hard to be a God
Venue: Old Clipsal site, corner Sixth Street Gibson Street, Bowden (enter from Sixth Street)
Season: 9pm to Wed 14th March 2012
Duration: 110min
Tickets: $30 to $69 (general admission)
Bookings: BASS 131 246, BASS outlets, or online
WARNING: Not Suitable for Under 18's – Strong violence/adult themes/nudity.
In Hungarian with English surtitles.
Photo: Márton Ágh.
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