BWW Reviews: Suzie Miller Explores The Power Of Touch In Her Moving New Work CARESS/ACHE

Thursday 2 April 2015, SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney

Griffin Theatre Company's latest offering CARESS/ACHE examines the importance of touch on human existence as 10 individuals experience a myriad of emotions and responses to physical and emotional stimuli with moving effect as their lives intertwine. Director Anthony Skuse has interpreted Suzie Miller's new work with a simplicity that allows the depth of emotion each character experiences to be palpable.

Designer Sophie Fletcher has transformed the intimate space of the SBW Stables Theatre into sterile space with linoleum curving from the floor up to the white tiled walls with a single stainless steel bench. Nate Edmondson's Sound design of Airport announcements serves to keep the audience guessing before the lights are dropped and writing is projected on the white walls.

The stories that unfold revolve around Mark (Ian Stenlake), a paediatric cardio thoracic surgeon grappling with the loss of a patient and his wife Libby (Helen Christinson) who fails to understand why he can no longer touch her; Saskia (Christinson), a wife coming to terms with her husband Cameron's (Gary Clementson) infidelity; Alice(Zoe Carides), a mother needing to hold her son Peter (Clementson) before he is sentenced to death; Cate (Sabryna Te'o), a mother providing for a special needs child Adam (Stenlake); Belinda (Carides), a somewhat lonely woman that works with Cate; and Arezu (Te'o), a young woman wanting to connect to her heritage. The stories are tied to the scientific analysis displayed on the walls which all relate to skin, sense and response.

The audience's imagination is drawn upon heavily given the minimalistic set with only simple prompts given to indicate the setting emphasizing the importance of the emotion the characters are feeling rather than their appearance or location. The small stage is often divided to focus on one story playing out whilst characters from other storylines remain in the shadows or two events occur simultaneously, delineated by lights and proximity. Along with the projections of scientific and intellectual ideas of skin and touch on the walls that introduce many of the scenes, the projections are also used to differentiate which character an actor is portraying during the scene as each actor takes on two roles with limited change in appearance which allows the pace to be retained as the story doesn't need to slow down to define which character is being represented.

Whilst there are a number of storylines, each expressing a different connection to physical or emotional touch, that intertwine, the most powerful belong to Mark and Alice by virtue of the story, connection, and performance.

Stenlake gives Mark the intensity and passion of a dedicated surgeon, inspired by his connection to life and then the despair at his inability to restore it. His opening monologue is powerful and sensual in his physicality as he recalls the power and positive emotion surgery gave him and the changing mood and tempo as his hands are unable to bring the tiny heart back to life. His combination of utilizing eye contact to draw the audience in and being absorbed in the story heightens the understanding of his changing emotions. He conveys Mark's inner conflict as he becomes repulsed at the thought of touching the living and dealing with a wife that seems more focused on her own physical needs and psychological need to be married to a surgeon rather than wanting to understand his change.

Carides' portrayal of Alice conveys a mother's love and the power of touch and the magnitude of the denial of it through her moving monologues. Miller's Playwright's note explains that her inspiration for CARESS/ACHE was the 2005 case of a mother denied the right to hug her child that was sentenced to death before his execution. Carides captures the heartache the mother experiences with profound depth and the final scene shows the healing nature of touch on two damaged people thrown together by horrendous circumstances. .

CARESS/ACHE is a moving work that makes you want to go home and hold your loved ones whilst being thought provoking as it examines the many forms that touch can come in from healing and hurtful, and can express a range of emotions from love to hate.

CARESS/ACHE

Griffin Theatre

SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross NSW

27 February - 11 April 2015

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