Like an onion
Lynn Freeman10/03/2010 10:49:00 a.m.
The Letter Writer, Circa Theatre, reviewed by Lynn Freeman.
A world weary man who emotionally closed off himself, helps people find the right words to express their own emotions, finds himself the keeper of a terrible secret.
This man, who can manipulate language and find the words to describe anything, finds himself helping an illiterate refugee who is trying to find sanctuary for himself and his wife.
These people inhabit made up countries in an unspecifiable time, and this makes it a story for all countries who either take in refugees or cast them out of their own countries through abuse, torture, censorship and betrayal.
Juliet O’Brien’s ten years in France have seen her develop a fluidity of direction and an elegance in her writing. She has translated this script from French, in an intriguing twist in this play about language and displacement.
Her New Zealand and English cast do her proud, notably French import Benoit Blanc as the passionate young man who is trying to establish a new life for himself and his pregnant wife, who is played with great delicacy by Blanc’s countrywoman Anne Barbot. As the letter writer, Peter Hambleton is brilliant, walking with stooped shoulders, which speak of his guilt and personal disappointments, and forcing us to question what we would do in his unenviable position.
The Letter Writer is a play that is as multi-layered as an onion and which might also see you shedding a tear or two.
A world weary man who emotionally closed off himself, helps people find the right words to express their own emotions, finds himself the keeper of a terrible secret.
This man, who can manipulate language and find the words to describe anything, finds himself helping an illiterate refugee who is trying to find sanctuary for himself and his wife.
These people inhabit made up countries in an unspecifiable time, and this makes it a story for all countries who either take in refugees or cast them out of their own countries through abuse, torture, censorship and betrayal.
Juliet O’Brien’s ten years in France have seen her develop a fluidity of direction and an elegance in her writing. She has translated this script from French, in an intriguing twist in this play about language and displacement.
Her New Zealand and English cast do her proud, notably French import Benoit Blanc as the passionate young man who is trying to establish a new life for himself and his pregnant wife, who is played with great delicacy by Blanc’s countrywoman Anne Barbot. As the letter writer, Peter Hambleton is brilliant, walking with stooped shoulders, which speak of his guilt and personal disappointments, and forcing us to question what we would do in his unenviable position.
The Letter Writer is a play that is as multi-layered as an onion and which might also see you shedding a tear or two.
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