REVIEW: One Way Mirror

The new play by Paul Gilchrist, One Way Mirror, is a confounding wonder of theatre-making, and nearly bursting with ideas, questions and confrontations. As Gilchrist, who also directs, confesses in the program notes, he’s not sure that in the ten years of plays with company Subtlenuance (of which he is a co-founder) has ever answered any questions. Which is just as well, as One Way Mirror brings up many, all challenging and urgent to our times, but begins to feel like a bombardment of Psychology 101 with detours into the philosophy department.

Set in the 1960s of American prestige universities, a series of psychological experiments places scientists, subjects and actors in a rat labyrinth of social examination. In this setting, researchers are intent on discovering the motivations – or lack of such – to explain how Nazism came to be. To this end, the actors play out seminal experiments of the era, including the infamous experiment in which volunteers applied increasing fake electric shocks to people deemed to have supplied incorrect answers to a dull quiz.

Supported by a dedicated cast, One Way Mirror is carried by it from start to finish. Each actor brings tremendous energy to the show, and creates an excitement apart from the story. Staged within the intimate confines of the backroom area of the World Bar, they need to be good to escape what might have been an overblown and unnecessary contemplation of too many questions and no answers. Not an unworthy pursuit, of course, but a bit of trimming would not be out of place. The actors Gilchrist has gathered are up to the work, and worth a look.

Until Mar 24. Blood Moon Theatre, The World Bar, 24 Bayswater Road, Potts Point. $20-$30+b.f. Tickets & Info:  www.subtlenuance.com

Reviewed by Olga Azar.