Review: Five Stories Of Mistreatment And Manipulation Merge With Mythology In I HATE YOU MY MOTHER

Thursday 26th January 2017, 8:15pm, Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo

Jeanette Cronin's (writer and performer) new work I HATE YOU MY MOTHER kicks off Old Fitz Theatre's year of exploring the stories that have been "unspoken" with a challenging collection of stories of the destruction youth and innocence. Set over 4 centuries, 8 characters with common stories come together in a confronting two hander performance.

On a minimalistic black set with a gloss tile floor, set and costume designer Tyler Hawkins has positioned a variety of rectangular prisms that form platforms for a variety of items. Martin Kinnane's (Lighting design) starburst and line of fluorescent light tubes illuminates the walls and when paired with changes to the main stage lights and bursts of Nate Edmondson's (Sound Design) sound, serve to help change locations without any physical set changes. As with the set design, Hawkins has kept the costuming simple with Cronin in a white cotton maxi dress and Simen Glømmen Bostad in white shirt and black pants, keeping the timeframe and location ambiguous, relying on the text and the accents to convey the transitions between stories.

The stories, which centre on innocence being taken from the young and the vulnerable, play out in various formats across a range of locations from Australia, England, Ireland and the Deep South of America, all taking place at different points in time. Along with the common theme of children being taken advantage of or being exposed to things children should not have to witness, Cronin has woven Irish and Scottish mythology of a mysterious woman with webbed feet that is an omen of death into the stories. She has utilised a variety of speech patterns characteristic of each era and region she has chosen to set the stories along with adding the poetry of the warnings of the legends passed from generation to generation.

Cronin gives the female roles that all hold the ultimate power and knowledge a confidence and range from anger, manipulation, calm coaxing, disorientation, and psychopathic revenge. Her physicality and her voice transform easily between the various characters and she changes the mood and expression with a pointed difference to ensure the audience understands that each character is unique. She captures the demonic rage of the banshee with foaming mouth and impassioned tears.

Newcomer Glømmen Bostad presents the men with more reservation than Cronin's women, highlighting the distribution of power in each pairing. Whilst each of Cronin's women are older, Glømmen Bostad is given the challenge portraying men of a variety of ages and given his younger age it makes some details harder to realise until they unfold in the text. Glømmen Bostad captures the contrast between the men that are the vehicles for the stories where the man on stage isn't the perpetrator and the men that have taken advantage of the vulnerable and are due to suffer the consequences.

Along with Cronin's detailed text, director Kim Hardwick also draws out the emotion and personalities with the choice of direction. The fight between ex-lovers is brutal and the moments between the dementia patient and her career is touching although the characterisation of the heartless hooker in desperate need of a cigarette could do without the actual smoke, which the earlier text indicates that the interrogation room is supposed to be smoke free.

I HATE YOU MY MOTHER is an intriguing exploration of dirty little secrets that plague multiple generations of women. Presented with passion and mystery, this is an interesting new play that will satisfy audiences that enjoy being challenged with thought provoking, intelligent works.

I HATE YOU MY MOTHER

Photos: Rupert Reid

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