Speaking in Tongues at Duke of York's Theatre

Speaking in Tongues at Duke of York's Theatre

02 October, 2009
by: Sandraleong

Someone wise - I believe it was the feminist writer Gloria Steinem - once observed pithily that the surest way to be alone is to get married. Verily, Andrew Bovell's Speaking in Tongues at the Duke of York's Theatre explores the chilling consequences of being together in solitude; lonely matrimony seducing people into varying extents of apathy and betrayal.  It is thoughtful. It is thrilling. It is surprisingly good.

Bovell first wrote this as the 2001 Australian film Lantana, which starred Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara Hershey and Geoffrey Rush, and went on to sweep the Australian Film Institute awards. Now adapted for the stage, Speaking in Tongues features a formidable cast of four playing nine characters whose lives are all intertwined.  The charismatic John Simm, of Life On Mars fame, is the ticket-moving headliner, playing a married detective who has a one night stand with a stranger.  Still, the play is clearly written for an ensemble cast, with the other characters – played by Ian Hart, Lucy Cohu and Kerry Fox  - saddled with a similar desires of duplicity.

The opening minutes reel you in immediately. Two couples – both married, but not to each other - ponder adultery in a seedy hotel.  Despite being set apart, they perform the same dialogue, delivering quick-fire lines simultaneously and completing each other's sentences. A tad gimmicky - but it neatly fleshes out the idea that both sides are faced with the same moral decision. The choices they make from here will take them down tangential and potentially destructive paths.

Bovell's plot unwinds masterfully, with the first half of the play delving into aftermath of the night at the hotel.  As the couples grapple with their indiscretions, they paint visceral pictures of marital disillusionment, where next to the practical burdens of real life, love has become an abstraction. The second half turns everything on its head when a new set of characters fills the stage. Vaguely related to the story at first, they become pivotal afterwards. A 'whodunnit' about a woman who has vanished into the woods ups the level of suspense, while never straying far from the underlying theme of human listlessness.  But  despite its complexity and lack of linearity, the plot never becomes convoluted or flabby. Each turn is water-tight; every word said is calculated. The only flaw, perhaps, is that with so much going on, we only just get to know the characters. A shame, but one I can live with.

Credit is due to the cast for juggling multiple parts with great dexterity. Hart, in particular, is a stand-out, first playing an average Joe stuck in an unexciting marriage then a lovelorn man jilted by his fiancee then a distressed husband of a missing woman.

True to its roots, Speaking in Tongues has a rather glossy, film-like quality about it. Scenes segue smoothly into one another with the pacing of a thriller, albeit an emotional one. The dialogue is easy but sharp, and there are no shoe-gazing soliloquies that often come with theatre territory. But if you're looking for a Hollywood-style resolution, you won't get one. Things only get more complicated at the end of the play, leaving you hanging and slightly dissatisfied.

But it's just as well. When it comes to love and marriage, perhaps a convenient answer would be too much of a cop-out.

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Sandraleong