Review: INNER VOICES Gives New Kind of Royal Treatment to Australian Audiences

You won't be able to take your eyes off it. You won't be able to keep pace or maintain control. You may not even be able to breathe.

In today's uncertain climate for the arts, there is much pressure on independent cohorts to prefer what it likely to sell over what's likely to inspire or challenge - not that they are mutually exclusive. The preservation of performances that truly progress our nation in the arts as a whole industry and cultural cornerstone is at the mercy of those with the ability to support, and in return expect nothing but the diversity and dimension brought to the collective consciousness, a priceless reward. Performances like this, of Louis Nowra's Inner Voices at Old Fitz is precisely the kind of art we must back and provide resources to continue, that is visually entrancing, thematically haunting and entirely gripping in its concert of performance, set, sound, light and costume. It is this kind of five-star work, where the devil in the detail has been sated with the souls of the cast and crew, and for all it may perplex or confront is nonetheless exquisitely thought-through and delivered.

Princess Anastasia, The Man in the Iron Mask, Elizabeth I, Princess Diana. Monarchic histories have always seemed closer to legend than fact, and the real story of King Ivan VI is no exception. Ivan became Emperor of Russia in 1740 at the tender age of two-months! Through a series of coups and usurping, Ivan became imprisoned under strict instructions to learn nothing and speak to no-one. Over twenty years go by, after which Ivan was killed when a sub-liutenant Mirovich attempted to break him out and reveal him as the true ruler. Inner Voices muses what might have happened if Mirovich's scheme had paid off - how do you fashion a mid-twenties man with no sense of language, socialising, politics or even fresh air into the sovereign of Imperial Russia?!

As the liege, Damien Strouthos' psyche is phenomenal to watch, walking the tightrope between drama and discomfort in his characterisation expertly. Seeing his transformation from naked, gibbering prisoner to the kind of ruler this review will not spoil the reveal of is both bizarre and yet plausible due to his remarkable commitment to the role. As crucial to the action is the fictional Mirovich, Anthony Gooley giving a performance at home in Shakespeare's Globe, filling Old Fitz's stage as much literally as figuratively. Gooley's talent lay in his mastery of both thriller-villain and comic-clown, claiming hoots of laughter from the audience (though Martelle Hunt's costume, and its opening night malfunction, might have had something to do with that). As if the tale of breaking the most heavily guarded prisoner and making him the leader of Russia wasn't crazy enough, Emily Goddard's entrance as con-artist Princess Ali shifts the suspense of the story into raw-nerve territory. Goddard's reappearance as Babyface, the Lady Macbeth of the tale, cements her value to the narrative and stage dynamic, for her performance is both entrancing and haunting simultaneously. Annie Byron as valet Petya does most of the leg-work for the show, and provides the vista of the audience member: utterly bemused by the proceedings, and yet horrified in an inability to control where they will end up.

You've never seen Old Fitz's intimate theatre space done up like this before: a torture chamber of eerie lights, haze and trap-doors. The decision to forego any opulence as Ivan is taken from his cell to his palace bedroom where he is tutored and manipulated, shows much shrewdness on designer Anna Gardiner's part -remarking on how any situation can seem like prison when that is your state of mind internally. This is the kind of finesse, supported by Sian James-Holland on lights, and Katelyn Shaw on sound, that take the suspense of the piece into raw-nerve territory, like watching someone fling themselves from a roof or two cars careen toward each other. Very infrequently is there theatre that so startles and thrills, for which director Phil Rouse must be applauded for not only creating a vision dripping with comedy, horror and melodrama-like commentary on the state of political and corporate greed, but also for proving Australian theatre has the potential to be iconic, and classic when done right, with a sense of gamble and adventure. Don't beg, borrow, or steal. Pay, because this one, all-Aussie, is worth it, and for the betterment of this nation's arts practices.

Tickets available here. More info on the Old Fitz website.
Images by Ross Waldron.

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