Described by Producer Peter Fray as ‘a bonsai of a play; tortured, powerful and absorbing’, Katie Pollock’s The Blue Angel Hotel is an 80 minute work featuring five performers (one of whom is a silent, acquiescent foreigner), dimly lit dancing segues and a tiny, tortured tree.
Set in a nowhere Australian town, the romantically named establishment from which the play draws its name offers accommodation at spitting distance from a correctional facility. Aging hotel proprietor Grace (Gael Ballantyne) pines for her incarcerated bloke and the play opens as she welcomes her newest hotel guest, Hiro (Takaya Honda).
The Blue Angel Hotel starts off strongly, introducing lush topics ripe for exploration; identity, reality, love and waiting. What does it mean to be a woman on the outside, awaiting a loved one’s release from prison? How much of a partner’s identity is defined by a choice like this? Unfortunately, as Pollock’s heavy-handed play takes shape, a solid, inspiring premise is eroded by over-written dialogue and sadly under-researched subject matter.
And then there’s The Blue Angel Hotel’s decidedly odd transitional moments: Hiro, mute and shoeless, inexplicably dancing with various characters. The narrative is a mix of dialogue, monologue and audience asides; the latter dropped in with little warning, rendering them barely distinguishable from the rest of the action. Strong directorial choices seem to have been avoided here.
Jacqui Livingston plays Vic, an unlikeable hotel regular and a prison psychologist, whose two-dimensional character lacks any of the traits of her aforementioned profession. Despite obvious shortcomings, The Blue Angel Hotel has redeeming features; long suffering bus driver Ray, played by Bill Conn, and Eloise Snape as Angel both offer believable, engaging performances which allow the audience a respite from what might otherwise be a quagmire of dramaturgical choices.
NIDA design graduate Dierdre Burges’ intricate, accomplished set design is nothing short of fabulous. Designer Burges and builder Victor Ashelford bring the hotel foyer to life in vivid, loving detail, with a talent for scenic realism that succeeds in rendering floorboards, tacky mural art and building decay with aplomb.
Bravely brought to the stage by Peter Fray in association with Tamarama Rock Surfers, this new, independent Australian work opened to an appreciative full house at the Old Fitzroy Hotel in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo.
Rating: 1 ½ stars out of 5
The Blue Angel Hotel
By Katie Pollock
Director: Aarne Neeme
Producer: Peter Fray
Designer: Deirdre Burges
Composer: Cluny Edwards
Stage Manager: Ruth Horsfall
Choreographer: Caroline Mooney
Set Construction: Victor Ashelford
Lighting Consultant: Tony Youlden
Cast: Gael Ballantyne, Takaya Honda, Jacqui Livingston, Bill Conn, Eloise Snape
The Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo
13 – 24 November
