Luke Hewitt and Adriane Daff in A Perfect Specimen. Photograph by Daniel James Grant.
3 years ago, a lady named Julia Pastrana was buried with her son near her birthplace in Sinaloa de Leyva, Mexico, roughly 180 years after her birth (around 1834, and after being on display for approximately 150 years – throughout most of her life and even into her subsequent death.
Truth is often stranger than fiction, and Black Swans latest offering: A Perfect Specimen digs into one of the most curious tales of carnival life that has ever been told, and from the first drop of the cane, you know you are in for a spectacle.
Moncrieff is a talented wordsmith, and the level of savvy, wit, charm and rhythm displayed in this piece bodes well for his future career as a playwright, and I for one would go and see a production solely based on his name being on the billboard.
The authenticity Specimen delivers is perfectly crafted, and with Moncrieff’s script as a more than solid base, the company has obviously poured money into the set and costumes. Seemingly straight out of WAAPA, Danckert’s scenography was both subtle and unmissable, with everything down to the texture and placement of the cushions giving the set the perfect richness and overused extravagance that era calls for, and is a wonderful company debut.
Ferguson’s costumes were one of the shows highlights, with every one being put together with Broadway/West End precision – and fine detailing of the sort that one normally sees only in European ballet companies or on the stage of Phantom of the Opera. The fact that this was a studio production makes the costuming even more noteworthy, as it would have been reasonably easy to come up with pieces and ensembles that simply resembled the era, but to combine textures, fabrics and details as worn in the production – shows a designer and team willing to put in the extra time and love that again, a play set in the mid to late 19th century and performed this close to an audience, calls for.
The hero of all heroes within this play is the casting, with one glaring exception, but obviously others had a differing opinion or the actor in question would not have been cast.
The two leads, Adriane Daff as the ill-fated Julia Pastrana, and Luke Hewitt as the overbearing showman, proprietor and husband (owner essentially) of the freak of the freaks, are both mesmerising.
Daff plays Julia with a quiet confidence, exuding grace and dignity from every pore. Her doll like features perfectly suit the timeframe, and relinquishing the gimmick of masks and actual beards lets the strength of the story and the fragility of the character shine through for what it is, with no distractions.
Hewitt’s role was a tough one, being on stage for almost every scene and having to cross almost every emotion possible. Several Hamlet-esque monologues had to be recited, reminiscent of the Bard both in the emotions necessary for the character to go through, the darkness of the subject, and quite simply, he nailed it. Hewitt made what should have been a thoroughly unlikeable character, remarkably likeable. For a considerable while he had us ‘dolts’ on his side and the fact that he took a medical curiosity as a wife and made his living from her exploitation meant little, as we could see the good inside, which is of course the genius of the writing – the mirror is held to the audience throughout the play as we are asked to question our own notions of beauty, what is normal, and who is the real monster?
With the tiniest hint of a tweak, delving even further into the forces behind the players, developing the minor characters and holding the mirror even closer to the audiences faces, instilled beliefs and ethics, A Perfect Specimen is one show I can imagine eventually lighting up the façade of one of the revered theatres in midtown Manhattan, extending Julia Pastranas infamy and grace for yet another extended period. It was that good.
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
A Perfect Specimen
Playwright. Nathaniel Moncrieff
Featuring. Adriane Daff, Rebecca Davis, Luke Hewitt, Greg McNeill, Igor Sass
Directed by. Stuart Halusz
Black Swan State Theatre Company
Studio Underground. State Theatre Centre of WA
30 June to 17 July 2016
