Review: Windows - a podcast by SYN Media

Waiting in dark anticipation in La Mama theatre with foreboding music in the background, you could sense the experience of the director, Lloyd Jones, in non-text based performance theatre. Windows, written by Ayse Bayra-moglu, is a new work which has undertaken some swift development from play-reading to fully mounted performance in the last year. It still retains the casual essence of play-reading with the stage manager, Lisa Edman, announcing the scene and stage directions at the beginning of each scene. I thought this was a clever way to add to the audience's experience of rawness, and believe they could have taken it even further by having the two actors, Anna Ellis, who plays Esme, and Zac Kazepis who plays Huso, preparing in between scenes on the stage rather than hiding next to the seating banks where they could awkwardly be seen and heard quite clearly. Not having the luxury of wings could be used quite powerfully rather than ignored.

 

It's sometimes really difficult watching adults play children, they often have to navigate a complicated text and story, while remaining childlike. I feel that the disbelief is only suspended when the actors let go and stop trying so hard to show the audience that they’re much younger than their years. I was wary as Ellis and Kazepis entered the stage, but as they warmed into the performance and shared true moments of connection and innocence I stopped seeing them as adult actors.

 

The most compelling part of Windows is the beautiful, rich and poignant script which follows the broken lives of two young children as they look through a window and see into an imaginary world, and dream of a life they will never have. The writer, Bayramoglu, was born in Istanbul, where I imagine the play is set, although it's quite ambiguous. It is filled with rich cultural themes, beginning with a heavily accented prayer interwoven with Arabic, stories around arranged marriage, dowries, poverty, and more sinister female subjugation. The translation of the script had that comforting lull of english being spoken as a second language, with formal syntax, reminiscent of some of my favourite books like “God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy. At times the characters used Australian slang which was quite jolting and took the audience out of the poetic flow of the piece, as did the continual ringing and beeping of audience members phones, and a special mention to the actors who powered through.

 

It must also be mentioned that Ellis joined the cast with only 8 days of rehearsal before opening night, due to her predecessor pulling out. Although i was a little disappointing in the lack of ethnicity in the casting, Ellis did an astounding job of memorizing the monster script, and storytelling with such depth. The timing between the two actors was noticeably off in some parts of the play, but given the time they had to adjust to each other as scene partners, it was a commendable performance.

 

If you enjoy independant theatre and books like The Kite Runner, and are game for some confrontational themes, check out Windows which enjoys it’s last show at La Mama on Sunday the 19th of March at 4pm.