Life Without Me, Daniel Keene
This was my first Daniel Keene experience - a renowned, multi-awarding winning playwright responsible for such works as, To Whom This May Concern and The Nightwatchman (coming soon to Melbourne) - and boy was it superb!
The play, which made its world premier at the Melbourne Arts Festival 2010, follows seven endearing lost souls who meet at a shabby, rundown hotel lobby. The set, designed by Dale Ferguson is realistic in style - in fact, it's pretty much an exact replica of what you'd imagine a sterile looking lobby to look like. It comes with a 'working' lift, rotating doors and real rain, and is the meeting place for the characters.
My review is here; this is more of an after thought.
The characters in the play are stuck - metaphorically and literally speaking. Though they are plagued by their own unique issues, they all share the common symptom of feeling as if their lives have gone on without them. Life Without Me is rich in allegory - from the witty dialogue, to the 'in-between' nature of hotel lobbies ("la salle des pas perdus"), to the characters believing that they are literally unable to leave the hotel, as if it were some sort of whirlpool that sucks them in.
The first thing that came to mind was The Wizard of Oz when Glinda tells Doherty that she could've always gone home. This notion is also something that is discussed in the movie, Girl, Interrupted. In Life Without Me, the question, "Will they ever leave the hotel?" is a recurrent theme. So is the question, "Can they make it back home?" just as we asked whether Doherty could find her way out of Oz, or whether Susanna Kaysen of Girl, Interrupted could ever leave the psyche-ward.
Beyond the surface, the concept explores our ability to resolve our own issues, as only then are we able to really move on. The Tin Man grows a heart, the Cowardly Lion, bravery, and the Scarecrow, a brain. Before then, we are stuck, lost between somewhere and nowhere. Indeed it is true that we can always return home, but certain measures have to be performed if we are broken. For if we are fractured and unable to move forward, how can we even begin our journey home?
Venue: Melbourne Theatre Company, Southbank Boulevard
Dates: Till October 23rd
Tickets: Here
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