A Rich Man – by Sam Brooks: Old Folks Association: 5-9 August (13th Floor Theatre Review)
Eight years in the making, premiering last night, Sam Brooks’ new black comedy A Rich Man confronts us with an unusually complex menage a quatre confronting, and evading, some difficult choices about the future and their past.
We begin at what looks to be the aftermath of a decent but polite party. Guests’ looking pensive; chillout music washing over us. Drinking last night’s dregs. A bowling ball in the foliage, all that sort of thing. And of course, a large phallus atop the piano.
Subtle work here from designer Jennier Lai. The phallus of course is big clue. Literally. The wracking cough from upstairs is another: it’s not the party’s dregs we’re watching here, it’s a death-watch vigil with too few genuine mourners. And a few too quick to wonder about a will, and what the fuck they do now.
These aren’t guests in this mansion. They live here, it seems.
Slowly, the story is revealed. It might shock. The ghost, or at least the memory, of a recently convicted arts patron seems to hang over the tale. “When I first wrote it,” says Brook, “it felt like it was too soon, but I think the arts community is finally ready to have these conversations about exploitation, complicity, and what silence costs the most vulnerable people in our society.” (Though do note the play’s disclaimer: “This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”)
This is people behaving badly. All of them.
It’s exciting to be there at the first night of a fresh, new, and challenging work. Sam Brooks certainly gives us that.
An award-winning playwright and journalist, Brooks is already the master of many works, including Adam NZ Play Award winner This is My Story of Us, Burn Her and From Another Woman. He has made a significant contribution to representing queer male voices on New Zealand stages.
But it’s easier, or seems to be, to set up the story than it is to unravel every thread.
The dramatic entrance of Alice Pearce starts the unravelling. Pearce is at her eye-rolling best kicking over the many pretences. Dan Cockerill in petulant response gives off the sinister vibes of John Dall from Hitchcock’s Rope. His collapse is just as persuasive. Sheena Irving’s Rose is asked to do too little, but her alcoholic entrances and exits enchant, and convince. “I did know,” she admits, knowing too much, and amorally drinking it away.
This is a first night, and it’s right on the night. The humour played well, the pathos was present, the surprises genuinely startling. And the ensemble cast mesh amazingly well for a first night—if not entirely convincingly as performers in what we discover. The play itself may be a shade longer than it needs to be, but I’m sure we’ll see some tightening.
As the production draws to its end, the conclusion offered by Irving’s Rose seems fit for all the characters portrayed: “No respect.” None.
Our own respect goes to the production that it still makes us invested in the story. Get along at Karangahape Road’s iconic Old Folks Association from August 5-9 to see it.
THEATRE PETER
* * * *
A Rich Man
Written and Directed by Sam Brooks
Starring Dan Cockerill, Max Crean, Sean Dioneda Rivera, Mark Chayanat Whittet, Sheena Irving and Alice Pearce
Designed by Jennifer Lal.
Old Folk’s Association
August 5-9, 7pm
Tickets here.
