On the surface, Michael Gow’s Europe is a story of unrequited love. It’s the tale of European actress Barbara (Pippa Grandison) who steals the heart of Australian bloke Douglas (Andrew Henry) while performing in Australia, only to leave him high and dry after a week of tumultuous love.
She returns back to her life in an undisclosed European city where she must “shoot her brains out” every night while performing classic tragedies with passionless gusto, and “tear her heart out” every day in a meaningless relationship. Meanwhile, in Australia, Douglas clings to hope that their love was true, his obsession causing him to give up his life to fly halfway across the world on the romance and allure of Europe and the exotic woman it possesses.
It sounds like any old love story, but in the hour or so of stage time it encompasses, it snowballs into so much more. It’s the love affair between Old and New Worlds and the fascination of a continent rife with thousands of years of blood and gore versus the allure of the exciting, shiny new one.
Minimal stage production meets minimal casting in James Beach’s interpretation of Gow’s play. Onstage, there’s little more than a vanity and chair to suggest Barbara’s dressing room, and little more than a chair and coffee table to depict her apartment. The cast of two is a well-chosen one, with both actors shining in harmonic equilibrium. Grandison delivers a perfectly timed comedic performance with enough sarcasm and smugness to encompass the European ethos without distancing the audience. Henry, on the other hand, takes his leave as the childish, innocent and utterly lovestruck character that we can only place our sympathies in as he attempts to grapple with the idea that his affections are unwanted.
But while the actors do their best with the script, it’s the directional execution that lets this production down. The transition into new scenes is jilted, relying too heavily on the characters to explain the environment, which only serves to confuse, leaving one wondering, “Where are they and why?” –and not in the thought-provoking, open-ended sense.
Sadly, the tragedy is not in the unravelled romance but in the ravaging of the script.
2.5/5 stars
Europe is playing at the Seymour Centre until Saturday September 27.
