Review: Mortido

Mortido is ambitious, in both the story it tells and the way it tries to tell it.

Cocaine may be the party drug of choice in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, but push below the surface and you find a seedy chain of crime, corruption and abuse that crushes the most vulnerable and feeds on their proverbial corpse.

Tom Conroy is Jimmy, a small-time dealer who gets caught in the gears of the supply chain. Colin Friels is Grubbe, the hard-bitten cop intent on taking down a big player. Behind it all looms the shadowy, surreal figure of La Madre, the spirit of sex and death.

Dark and disturbing from the outset, the opening folk tale is of a young boy who gets tricked into going into a butcher shop where he gets slaughtered and stitched up with drugs. The sense of unease is only amplified by the use of two child actors throughout the production. One of the later scenes where a child carries a bag leaking blood all over the stage is almost too much to take. (Is this just shock for shock’s sake?)

Staging and lighting is as shiny and manufactured as the scenes it portrays, while the script regularly breaking into Spanish and German dialogue does not help audience engagement.

Friels sparkles in his ensemble parts, and plays Grubbe with the grittiness and charisma we all know well, but it sits uneasily with the bizarre moments of surrealism. Perhaps this production is trying to be too many things.

Mortido is a harrowing experience. But it is hard not to wonder, ‘What is the point?’ (GW)

Until Dec 17, Tues–Sun, various show times. Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills. $49-72. Tickets & info: belvoir.com.au/productions/mortido/ or 02 9699 3444.