SPEAKING IN TONGUES

Caught a play tonight at the Herald Theater that I really enjoyed. SPEAKING IN TONGUES is about love and the love people have, give and take away from one another and questions the claim these characters have to feel and go in search of that feeling if their idea of love is not reciprocated.

This is a thinking person’s play but it is in no way dense nor does it try to be smarter than the controversial theme being explored — infidelity and its implication on the ones who want to be loved, who deserve it.

Much to the director and actor’s credit, the execution of the play is sublime and just as important as the narrative itself. The abstract time displacements, synchronized dialogue sequences and minimalistic set design caused me to focus on the bigger picture and wonder, whether the breakdown of relationships causes a domino effect, and are due to a loss of love for one another and the deceitful actions taken to revive that love, or whether the solution to (and root cause of) all love’s problems can only be found within themselves. Every character in SPEAKING IN TONGUES is at some point irresponsible. They are all emotionally connected, yet so disconnected; tragic figures acting on the timeless, universal impulse to understand love — how and why do we love and can we control that — SPEAKING IN TONGUES is a poetic parable on the levels of trust and faithfulness placed in others, monogamous lovers and strangers alike. We all tell our stories and want to be heard, but does anyone truly listen? We may as well be speaking in tongues.

Australian writer, Andrew Bovell, wrote Speaking In Tongues in 1996, and owing to its success, he also wrote its film adaptation in 2001 called Lantana. The play has been adapted and performed in theaters the world over and you can see for yourself why in the capable care of Shane Bosher’s direction, John Verryt’s set design, Paul McLaney’s expressive score and Alison Bruce, Oliver Driver, Luanne Gordon and Stephen Lovatt’s high calibre performances. Great cast.

This play runs until Saturday 14 September and if you have the least bit of interest in seeing a play or you haven’t in a long time, SPEAKING IN TONGUES is definitely one of the most ambitious and meticulously well executed plays I have ever seen and I highly recommend it.