In the opening sequence of THE HOUSE OF RAMON IGLESIA a mother lights the incense for the small, crowded, ever-present house altar. The audience has been warned about its use. The smell is strong and pungent. But the wafts rising from the well-used smoker soon dissipate. This is much the way I felt about the production. So many solid things about the enjoyable and well conceptualised show but little to take home.
This is a family drama. Ramon has brought his clan from Puerto Rico for the good life in America, landing in Long Island in the 1960s. It is now 1980. He has a disaffected wife who refuses to learn English and a janitorial job in a school which doesn’t help his alcoholism or his diabetes. He has three sons. They are different, yet all three have more aspiration and self-belief than he has.
Julio is a muscle bound dolt who escapes by joining the Marines. The youngest is Charlie who is so successfully inculcated in the Hispanic way that he prefers to be called Carlos and pines to return to a country he has never seen. Then there is Javier, a political science graduate. He is the most aspirational. This manifests in his being more American than the ‘friend from school’ he hangs out with. His internalised racism sees much of his parents in the down and outs of the barrio near their home. Why then does he bother with white trash Caroline when she personifies the American Dream brought low?
There is violence and laughter in this household. They have a ‘helter skelter way of stumbling around’ and the audience gets them.
As Ramon, Nicholas Papademetriou begins as likeable and effusive with a love of his family and optimism about his disappearing dream of returning to his homeland. His gradual change into the violent, pathetic creature who is too drunk to get up out of the snow is logical and believable. As Dolores, Deborah Galanos is spectacular. Her internal rage is there from the beginning and her stubbornness and manipulating hysteria is very well constructed.
As Charlie, David Soncin has a steady quality. His performance nicely grows from the boy to become the man who will look after the family if their move is successful.
Julio, the middle child, is a difficult character. He is written very much as a stereotype until his final interactive scene, when the beast looks like it may be tamed. In Christian Charisiou’s hands the lack of self-awareness is nicely balanced with the bravado.
The pivotal character is Javier. As interpreted by Stephen Multari, he is distant and distracted by his aspirations. He has lost patience with his mother and father and is torn by the familial obligations of being the first born.
I found his struggle a little too gentle. I was hoping for something more …Latin … in him. The violence on stage happens quickly and he is often a part of it but it doesn’t ring true. His tongue can be vicious but his physicality doesn’t match.
Eloise Snape as Caroline also doesn’t match her exterior. The character isn’t clear enough and the gift she gives is not presaged enough in the girl we meet in the first scene or the emotionally uneven scenes between her and Javier.
These, however, are small matters when the cast works so well together and the direction is tight. Director, Anthony Skuse, has created a genuine familial space. Mopheap productions used a similar raised stage with their production God Of Hell in the same theatre and it works really well to bring the house into the house. The detail of 20 years of grime on the cupboards when they move things around is terrific set design by Georgia Hopkins.
There is a lot of business in this show, cooking and eating and hitting and falling, and the cast have strong control over the movement. This adds to the sense that the characters have grown up in this house and have filled it together. Overall we do have that overwhelming feeling that this is a family and the house is full of love and laughter and regret and loss but, like Dolores, it didn’t translate into my world.
I took little away. Nothing to talk about in the car going home. The title and flyer warned us about the nature of the story. The drama was strong, the comedy light and the performances touching but the text did not leave me anything to hold on to. The emotional content dissipated too quickly for me but I enjoyed spending time with the Iglesia family and hope that their future is good.
THE HOUSE OF RAMON IGLESIA is playing at the Old Fitz Theatre until June 6th.
For more about The House of Ramon Iglesia, visit http://www.mophead.com.au/#!the-house-of-ramon-iglesia/crzj