Still

Entering the black box theatre basement of Melbourne’s unique multi-arts venue and cultural incubator, fortyfivedownstairs, a dimly lit tableau featuring four lone individuals emerges. Each of the actors is stationed in a corner of the wrinkled square floor covering which outlines the stage. The audience sits at either end: there is no upstage or downstage, a bold move for director Sarah Vickery. A soundscape of water can be heard in the distance. The expressionless faces of those on stage are eerie. Everything is still.

Slowly emerging from a plastic casement on stage, covered in slime (amniotic fluids), a near-naked adult male (Joseph Lai – The Human Project) majestically reveals himself with a flip back of his luscious waist-length hair. “WOW,” he screams with delight. He introduces himself as Constantinople, a two-day-old stillborn baby who is looking for his mother after he continues to hear her crying. He is in awe of his surroundings and the vocabulary he has recently acquired. The scene is whimsically dark, a precursor for all to come.

Still is a surreal dreamscape, a non-naturalistic theatre piece that invites the audience on a collective journey to explore the deepest, intimate, and most vulnerable questions. Written by playwright Jen Silverman, Still explores loss, intimacy, guilt, and grief through the interconnection of characters’ lives and events. Morgan (Joanne Booth – Aufidius/Virgilia-Coriolanus, Devina Savage – The Savages of Wirramai and Pippa Moynihan – Hotel Sorrento) is a 41-year-old professor of entomology who grapples with her recent stillbirth. The midwife, Elena (Elisa Armstrong – The Alchemist, Rosalind – As You Like It) blames herself. Stricken with failure, a conviction that she is a ‘bad person’, and a desire to be punished, Elena experiments with self-degradation/flagellation as a coping mechanism. She attends appointments with young Dolores (Sara Bolch – Sadface, The Children’s Hour and Metamorphosis), a runaway dominatrix who can only be described as being at odds with the world. Creatively, these women’s lives become intertwined with them all attempting to make sense of the world around them.

Silverman was inspired to write her award-winning play Still after meeting with Lisa Heineman, a mother who shared her stillbirth experience. Heineman expressed her thoughts and feelings about how invisible stillborn babies are to an already squeamish culture about death.

‘I thought of writing a play that reflected even a part of the intensity of (the) experience; the characters had to exist in moments of extremity, at places of extremity. The giant dead baby named Constantinople, the dominatrix who becomes his friend, the midwife whose life has turned into a search for redemption, the mother who is caught between her anger at the injustice of the universe, and her love for Constantinople, dead or not — these, to me, felt like truthful representations of the way the world becomes distorted and lines thinned in moments of extreme emotion,’ comments Silverman.

Still is thought-provoking. The themes are intense. The dialogue poetic. The minimalistic use of stagecraft allowed the audience to focus on the plays’ questions, characters, and narrative. Each of the actors was unique and contrasting in their overall use of skills. Lai’s movements were beautifully purposeful and meaningful; his charm, positivity and naivety made it impossible not to feel compassion and encouragement towards the character he portrays. Booth, through expression, conveyed her character’s sorrow, hurt and heartache ever so powerfully, while Armstrong delivered her lines with sincerity and passion. Bolch’s overall demeanor was successful in establishing her characters ‘punk-rocker’ anarchist personality.

Still holds a unique power over its audience. Throughout the entire 90-minute performance, audience members are transfixed on each of the characters, accompanying them during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. The absurd, non-naturalistic elements which are threaded throughout are certainly not for everyone, however, for theatre lovers, it’s a show to remember.

Still
fortyfivedownstairs,
fortyfivedownstairs.com/event/still

Image: Angel Leggas