It is one thing is to know that there is no point in continuing on the road that you have been travelling, it’s something else, all together, to have the willpower and the where-with-all to forge out a new path.
This is the dilemma that faces the characters in the great American playwright John Patrick Shanley’s (best known for his play DOUBT which he then turned into the Academy Award winning film starring Merryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman) 1985 drama, SAVAGE IN LIMBO.
Shanley’s play, set in the early eighties, sees a torrid meeting of lost souls take place in a downbeat Bronx pub called ‘Scales’. Daniel Cordeaux plays Murk, the straight-shooting, abrupt barman who pours drinks for a quintet of distressed patrons, all 32 years old and pressing the panic button.
Katherine Beck plays the title character of Savage who at 32 is still a virgin and can’t stand it. Savage is immobilised by angst. At one point she says, ‘I see what could go wrong with everything, so I don’t do anything’.
Zoe Trilasbach plays Linda Rotunda who knows that there is no future in her tarty, promiscuous ways, but is reeling from the shock that her long- time boyfriend Tony has dumped her because he has decided that he now only wants to date ugly, intelligent women.
Christina O’Neill plays April White whose pure white childhood dreams of becoming a nun have been dashed and who now takes solace in the bottle, which she won’t let go of for anything.
Troy Harrison is Tony Aronica who rushes into the Scale bar full of excitement. Aronica tells his ex that he has found an unattractive, intelligent woman who is teaching him all about life in the Soviet Union.
With SAVAGE IN LIMB Shanley mines a rich vein of black comedy. His characters are so all over the place that it is as if they are walking around in a big funk wearing blindfolds.
Veteran theatre and Opera director Stuart Maunder tightly directs and wins good performances from the cast.
Shanley’s intense drama, he himself has described it as a ‘concert play’, is a perfect fit for this intimate theatre space.
Jasmine Christie’s set nicely makes out a grungy Bronx bar, complete with plants that Murk insists on watering, even though the patrons tease him that they are dead! The dialect coach as well as lead performer, Katherine Beck ensures that each of the performers retain their rich American accents through the play.
SAVAGE IN LIMBO is another striking production by the Workhorse Theatre Company, formed in 2011 by a hard working ensemble of thespians, which impressed Sydney theatregoers with their sell-out February production of Sheila Callagha’s THAT PRETTY PRETTY, or THE RAPE PLAY also at the Tap.
Recommended, John Patrick Shanley’s 1985 play SAVAGE IN LIMBO opened at the Tap Gallery, 278 Palmer Street, Darlinghurst on Thursday 18th October and runs until Saturday November 3, 2012.
© David Kary
22nd October, 2012
An edited version of this play was published in the Australian Jewish News, Sydney Edition, Volume 119, Number 6, Friday October 26, 2012.
Tags: Sydney Theatre Reviews- SAVAGE IN LIMBO, John Patrick Shanley, Stuart Maunder, Daniel Cordeaux, Christina O’Neill, Katherine Beck, Zoe Trisbach, Troy Harrison, Tap Gallery Darlinghurst, Workhorse Theatre Company, Sydney Arts Guide, David Kary