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Canberra Today 21°/25° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: a grandmother relived in theatre

Paul Capsis
“Angela’s Kitchen,” created by Paul Capsis, Julian Meyrick and Hillary Bell, at The Street Theatre until June 23. 

What actor and cabaret performer Paul Capsis endeavours to do in “Angela’s Kitchen” is in a sense very simple – to conjure up the personality of his Maltese grandmother.

With the flick of a light switch, a couple of  folk songs, hilarious bursts of Maltese kitchen dialogue, Capsis plays all the characters and performs acrobatic feats with a cigarette, quickly shifting again to give us the pursed lips of “Clarrie” calling the bingo game at the local hall.

Backed by splendid photographic views of the old country, he hints at an old way of life lost and a new way of life found.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re Maltese or not, if you come from a culture in a society where community counts, this one-person play will resonate strongly.

That was evident in the gurgles and chuckles of recognition from the back of the audience on opening night.

This is a sophisticated production, with a set that fits into a small wardrobe and a suitcase and an audio-visual design by Steve Toulmin that bring to life of the streets of Malta.

Many will be impressed by the research that reveals  Capsis’ near-mythological family with its list of begats and by the complex shuffling of timeframes as we are introduced to the characters emerging from the family tree.

And yet there is more to this production than just an immigrant story, for the actor brings out the essential loneliness of the two central characters, Angela and the grandson — Capsis himself.

In a curious backward and forward trip across the genders towards the end of the evening which momentarily suggested an earlier ending for the play, he adopts the red dress of his grandmother (or is it his own?) and the poignancy of that isolation becomes clear.

Thus an evening that runs the gamut from hilarity to despair ends on a quiet, reflective note.

 

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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