The raising of Lazaroo
Kit
Lazaroo’s short play Asylum premiered at La Mama
last year and has made it to the secondary school study text list.
This return staging is largely aimed at those school audiences
giving them a chance to see the play rather than just reading
it.
Asylum is an exuberant fantasy-comedy
concerning Yu Siying (Fanny Hanusin) a Chinese girl studying in
Australia and, seeming to be mentally unstable, is threatened
with deportation to China. Siying’s behaviour may be related
to trauma at the hands of the Chinese authorities but mad or not
she is definitely weird and enlists the help of a departmental
psychiatrist Lally Black (Glynis Angell) while avoiding the immigration
authorities headed by the minister Turlough Dando (Tim Considine).
Siying infiltrates Black’s home captivating her prison-warder
brother Smudge (Tim Stitz) who is genuinely traumatised after
shooting an escaping prisoner.
The farce elements nearly overtake the more serious
issues of the play, but some of the real immigration department
bungles of the last few years have been farces in themselves.
But the play itself is beautifully done here. Perhaps because
the student audience will be so familiar with the text the actors
have taken special care in bringing it to life. In a programme
note, director Jane Woodward mentions that the scenes alternate
between fantasy and reality, often ambiguous about whose reality
is being presented. Also one scene may still be in progress when
a character enters to begin another and this "slippage between
modes of reality" has been dealt with very imaginatively.
A performer enters taking up a space away from the current scene
and, as it dissolves, establishes a new reality with the new scene.
As space is at a premium in La Mama this attention to micro-detail
is another memorable part of this production.
Everyone is vulnerable in Lazeroo’s play,
not the just the disposed immigrant. Angell is very touching as
the overworked psychiatrist. Black’s delusions as she goes
deeper into Siying’s history are done with beautiful Chinese
puppets. Stitz creates a convincing portrait of a man lost in
his own thoughts. Puppets also provide the one legged ghost that
haunts him.
The designs are among the best even seen at La Mama.
A patch of red paint on wall makes a dramatic backdrop to some
scenes. A row of assorted filing cabinets make a simple but effective
background to the main action and provide an impromptu puppet
theatre. Richard Vabre’s lighting is equally effective managing
to focus soft and subtle light on Angell in the opening and closing
scenes while throwing dramatic light and shadow around in the
fantasy sequences. Lighting the tiny space that is La Mama so
precisely. The fantasy world of the play is also evoked by the
multifaceted soundscape by Peter Farnan – of Boom Crash
Opera fame - making this one of the best designed productions
the Faraday Street theatre has seen.
The students are fortunate indeed!
Michael Magnusson
To read more of Michael Mangusson's theatre reviews,
check out his blog at
On Stage (and walls) Melbourne.
