Savage/Love
Directed by Deborah Johnston
When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable)
Directed by Diana Denley
Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney
Until June 7
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Review by Sue Boland
Two plays by Sam Shephard and Joseph Chaikin are being performed together at the Belvoir Theatre.
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The older of the two, Savage/Love, is a very intense one-person play. Through the eyes of an old man (Christopher John Snow), Savage/Love reflects the different facets of human love — the first meeting, the early fantasies about the new lover, the yearning for approval, the need for love, the desire to control, the fear of being discarded, the suspicion and the jealousy.
In choosing a one-person format, the authors have shown how love is constructed out of one person's perspective and needs. The play shows the illusions people create when they want and are seeking love: how people try to change themselves in order to secure love, and how they try to change their lover to fit in with their own fantasies.
The audience is left with a lot of questions. Did the old man fantasise the whole relationship? Did he kill his lover, or was that scene symbolic of the death of the relationship? You are never quite sure whether the set represents a room in a house or a prison cell.
There are disturbing scenes reflecting violent aspects of love — insecurity and fear of being dumped for someone else, combined with the desire to manipulate and have complete control over the other person. Although the audience is never told whether the lover is a female or a male, the allusion to violence and control leaves the audience convinced that the lover is a woman.
Love is portrayed as being both the man's saviour and his downfall.
In what must have been a very difficult part, Snow carried off the performance magnificently, capturing the character of the old man and the contradictions of “love” perfectly.
The authors deliberately don't put the old man in any social context in Savage/Love. The old man never hints at his name, he never refers to his lover by name, we don't find out what work he does or did, or anything else about his life
The play reflects how human relationships are distorted by capitalism.
When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable), lacks the strengths of Savage/Love. Although the acting was good (except for the unconvincing southern US accent), it wasn't clear what the point of the play was.
The play was meant to explore the motivations of an old man (David Ritchie) who was driven to kill his cousin by a centuries-old family vendetta and the motivations of a woman looking for her long-absent father.
Because the man could not bring himself to carry out his destiny and kill his cousin, he killed a complete stranger who looked like his cousin.
The woman enters the scene to interview and write a book about the man's crime and his motives. Did she think this man might have been her father?
They appear to fulfil each other's needs for affection and to be needed by someone. Again, the characters have no names.
The two plays are very interesting, but the more powerful of the two is definitely Savage/Love.