SIFA 2022 :: Devil's Cherry

I was glad that I could catch a play at SIFA 2022. Managed to do a night show. That would be festival commission 'Devil's Cherry', co-written and co-directed by Kaylene Tan and Paul Rae.

The stage was expansive, set in steps to adhere to the different spots of the Australian landscape in the show. Audiences were handed headphones, nicely adjusted for volume and such. We were to listen to the show's dialogue and music through it. 

On stage we had actors Lim Kay Siu, Neo Swee Lin, Elizabeth Sergeant Tan, and "mohiniyattam-trained Indian-Australian queer dancer" Raina Peterson. The blurb also listed the performance as an "experience [that] blends striking visuals by Andy Lim, Brian Gothong Tan and Wong Chee Wai with immersive spatial audio by Darius Kedros and the gothic Outback blues of fabled Australian songsmith, C.W. Stoneking."

Singaporean middle-aged couple Mo and Debbie sold their house and are on a caravan trip around Australia. They're also facing personal crisis and running away from their own demons. Still, these demons caught up with them in the vast Australian forests and dessert. Based on the program notes, I'd assume that they camped out somewhere near present-day Melbourne, maybe around Yarra Valley, which was the land the Wurundjeri settled on.

As the play opens, Debbie and Mo have realised their dream. They've been on the road for months, “at home anywhere and everywhere.” But the land is charged by the energies of the past: strange residues of memory and meaning in almost-human form; one hungry for souls, feeding off their prey's inmost desires, the other beaten down over centuries, but nurturing an epic capacity for love.

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Devil's Cherry was conceived and developed in Melbourne on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We acknowledge and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

We have Rain and Bella Donna (the title 'Devil's Cherry' is also a name for nightshade, and yes, belladonna), both of whom I couldn't decide if they were hallucinations in Mo and Debbie's minds or they're truly sprites on the land. The actors moved effortlessly between dance and speech, human and animal and spirit.

The venue was comfortable. Pasir Panjang Power Station couldn't be chilled easily, but it was cool enough, and the ventilation was sufficient. The logistics of getting tickets and a valet spot were impeccably smooth. This is a great display of experimental theater. I love the set design, and how it has been presented to audiences. 

Most importantly, the script works well in its ambiguous ending. Some didn't like it. Some were like, whuuuut. I didn't mind it. Mo died, that's a fact, but how he died, would remain open to interpretation. Did he die of being poisoned by his wife? Or did he die in the elements while in the throes of a hallucination, did he truly see a spirite? Or was he poisoned by eating nightshade? It didn't matter. It has served its purpose. We all carry losses, some deep, some lighter but all of them hurt. We shoulder them and they weigh down our hearts. These, we felt keenly throughout the fairly emotive performance.