Lake Disappointment

LAKE DISAPPOINTMENT

Written by Lachlan Philpott & Luke Mullins

Directed by Janice Muller

Starring Luke Mullins

The cathedral-like halls of Redfern’s Carriageworks are a blessing and a curse to prospective narrative theatremakers. How could you possibly create an intimate experience in so enormous a space without criminally underusing it?

If you’re struggling with that question, you may want to ask the team behind Lake Disappointment, as they have what may well be the definitive answer.

A body double’s career exactly mirrors that of their counterpart, and Hollywood actor Kane is hitting it big at last. His double waits for him at Lake Disappointment, the location for a small-budget thriller, and as the star’s arrival becomes increasingly uncertain, the line between their identities begins to shift.

Writer Lachlan Philpott teamed up with performer Luke Mullins to craft the script for this play, and it shows in the flow and candour of the text. It’s as if the language of the character was embedded in Mullins’ frame, and Philpott has simply tapped it and let it spill onto the stage. Our body double is a rather captivating narcissist, beautifully poised and preened but with deeply ugly views on the ‘lesser’ beings that inhabit his world. But who is he, really, to judge?

Mullins is an eminent performer with a grace that makes him a natural for this character, a model who is always performing. A one-man show can be a make-or-break proposition, but Mullins has little to fret with the strength of the production team.

Director Janice Muller has the same respect for “the most beautiful cavern in Sydney” that Philpott does, and a remarkable patience that sees her revelations teased out until they seem impossible. The story constantly invokes the artifice of cinema, and with an eye for detail that would impress Bergman, Muller actualises the cinematic on the stage while emphasising the dramatic possibility of the live space.

Lake Disappointment itself is described like an Australian Twin Peaks; a space where anything is possible and Mullins’ disintegrating sense of self is intertwined with the landscape in thrilling fashion. To say more would be to say too much, but attention must be drawn to the pitch-perfect contribution of sound designer and composer James Brown. Just when you think that musical swell is becoming a bit dramatic, don’t worry – the creators do, too.

Finding the exact midpoint between theatre and cinema, Lake Disappointment fails in only one regard, and that’s in living up to its title.

★★★★★

Lake Disappointment was reviewed at Carriageworks on Thursday April 21.

Post originally printed in The BRAG; available at http://thebrag.com/arts/lake-disappointment