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SONG OF FIRST DESIRE upstairs at Belvoir Street Theatre. Production photography by Brett Boardman
SONG OF FIRST DESIRE is a fitful play that dips in and out of time frames and between countries. Written by Australia’s Andrew Bovell in collaboration with Spain’s Julian Reta and directed by Neil Armfield, the play is a complicated puzzle for the audience to solve. Scenes are set during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930’s and during the 1968 violent student protests. Actors double characters with sufficient costume change but we lost the characters’ names. One actor has a strong Spanish accent, but the others don’t use an accent, disconnecting the characterisations. One of the twins is a fulsome framed woman and the other a small man, preventing the audience from imagining their sibling relationship. The baby girl twin was taken by a wealthy Spanish woman who had no children. Yet the girl, as a woman, remembers her childhood not with that woman, but with her original family.
The word ‘then’ is projected on the back wall a few times during the performance to let the audience know we are about to enter a new time. ‘Then’, as in ‘then this happened’ was really ‘then’ as ‘back then’. All rather confusing. It’s a mystery why the play has an elliptical structure. Why not have it in chronological order and cut out the confusion? It’s even a mystery why it’s titled Song of First Desire. Is sex the first desire? Is it fighting fascism?
This play does not serve people killed and tortured during the Civil War and the 1968 protests. It is overly earnest, has too much shouting and is too wordy and tries to do too much. For example, complicating the story, the playwrights have included the gay Spaniard who hires a ‘straight’ carer for his demented mother. He parades around the stage with his family jewels on display, hoping to seduce the carer. This does nothing to serve the victims of Francisco Franco.
If we are to have a play about the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and the 1968 protests, there are already excellent plays by Spaniards. El Unity Theatre y la Guerra Civil Española’s plays, The Trampled Earth, the plays of Lorca and Lope de Vega. There are books and letters of the 66 Australian men and women who went to Spain to fight the Fascists. There is potential for a play here.
The excellent acting just couldn’t save this play. Kerry Fox is the sister who is rude, cruel and loud-mouthed. She is also sweet Carmen. Borja Maestre plays the carer who has to fight off the gay brother. The carer is originally from Spain but earlier fled to Columbia in fear of his life. Borja handles the complexity of the role well but his diction is sometimes unclear. Jorge Muriel plays both Carlos and Luis, trying his best to distinguish between the two opposite types. Sarah Peirse plays both Camelia and Margarita.
Production photography by Brett Boardman
SONG OF FIRST DESIRE is playing until the 23rd March upstairs at Belvoir Street.
