Bruce Norris' flawed play gets a great production at Gate Theatre
The details of Bruce Norris' 1970s-set Purple Heart are what really make it. The story itself gets a bit tiresome but there are some poignant, perfectly captured characters that stand out in this Gate Theatre production.
Written in 2002, the play centres on Carla who's just lost her husband in the Vietnam War and actor Amelia Lowdell shows us her confused, angry and hopeless mourning process. She is desolate under the care of her invasive mother-in-law. It's little things like Carla's dependency on a car in the suburbs, her failure to keep enough milk in the house and her affinity with her mother-in-law's own feelings of obsoleteness, that really linger.
She also bears the responsibility of caring for her practical joke-loving teenage son, Thor, who struggles to match his powerful name. When a chap called Purdy turns up at her door in military garb, she assumes he's a friend of her dead husband's bearing another polite casserole. Purdy however, fits neither of these assumptions.
Through a cunning performance from Trevor White, his visit is the straw that breaks the camel's back and whatever Carla may have been coping with before, she's certainly not coping with now. Out pours a bitterly honest confession about what it's like to grieve for someone who was abusive and inconsiderate, but there's always the nagging feeling that Purdy and Carla's dynamic is too odd.
He knew her when she was hospitalised and physically restrained but we soon learn she herself doesn't really know what happened in that hazy period, so why is she so suddenly trusting of him? Desperation, it seems is the answer but it doesn't really satisfy.
The pair are pitted against Carla's moralistic mother-in-law, Grace, who's lost her son. Her grief manifests itself in trying to care for everyone else. The child must be disciplined and the mother taken care of. To the detriment of Carla, Grace has taken those jobs upon herself. Linda Broughton is my favourite performer in this play. She depicts Grace's mannerisms and tone with such ease, it's hard to imagine anyone else in this role.
Similarly, as Thor, Oliver Coopersmith provokes questions about how we learn empathy and how we enjoy ridicule and distraction. The way he consumes his father's death and his own fascination with violence are conveyed with a purposeful vagueness. He flicks in and out of designer Simon Kenny's detailed living room, causing mischief and reminding the vulnerable adults of the even more vulnerable child.
But there's no getting away from the contrived plotting and the implausible ease between Carla and Purdy. Still, Christopher Haydon's production is pretty seamless and smart. The actors in particular clearly excel under his direction.
Purple Heart runs at Gate Theatre until 6th April.
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