REVIEW – FIREFACE

REVIEW – FIREFACE
Image: Darcie Irwin-Simpson & Darcy Brown in 'Fireface', photo by Phyllis Wong

Challenging and dark, the production of Fireface by Stories Like These is powerfully staged, and at times dreadfully frightening.

A subtle set, consisting of a table and four chairs, is the most generic aspect of this family’s dynamic. It is a home in which the occupants collide to varying physical and psychological degrees, collisions rendered powerfully by an overwhelming, shuddering, sound and lighting design.

Perversity and power co-exist here, haunting the shadows of the stage like the characters themselves between scenes. Their presence lingers throughout each disconnected fragment, a web of loneliness from which they struggle to escape. Moments of unsettling honesty come in the form of brief asides, rather confessions, by each of the characters in turn.

Darcy Brown is mesmerising as Kurt, his wry sarcasm all the more powerful for its understated assurance. This production imbues Marius von Mayenburg’s play with tremendous depth, and cliché or not, it is literally on fire. (RM)

Until Aug 17, atyp, Studio 1, The Wharf, Pier 4/5 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay, $20-32.50, (02) 9270 2400, atyp.com.au

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