Left – Tom Conroy and Colin Friels. Cover – Tom Conroy and David Valencia. Phtos – Brett BoardmanCock, Coca-Cola and Cocaine. Quinoa, QANTAS and Krispy Kreme. Krauts, cops and killing.
This is the litany of alliteration in Angela Betzien's cascading crime drama, Mortido.
“Cock” is emphatically ejaculated many times during the course of the play, El Gallito is a spectral character, a child's nightmares find expression in cock a doodles, and a cock-fight in all its spurious furious spur and feather flailing is a staged piece of the action.
In Mortido, cock is front and centre, literally, figuratively and symbolically.
Coca Cola and Krispy Kreme are evoked as symbols of capitalism, the diminutive for the soft drink, Coke, interchangeable with the diminutive for cocaine. Monte is addicted to the drug, his son is addicted to the drink.
Betzien cokes the furnace of the drama with a magic realism, though the magic is black, as is the humour, and the realism palpable in the atmosphere of dread.
Betzien has been inspired by the 'Golden Age' of television and the emergence of popular crime shows to write a cycle of crime dramas, the latest of which, Mortido, feels like binge viewing a season of a series.
Indeed, director Leticia Caceres employs cinematic techniques like cross fade and superimposition, deftly combining the televisual with traditional theatre craft.
The play begins with the theatrical equivalent of the close up, with drug squad detective Grubbe, bathed in spotlight, telling a chilling story of how a major Mexican drug cartel came into being.
It's a myth making soliloquy, full of monstrous acts, an anecdote laced with mordant mysticism.
From this folk lore prologue told by folk of law, the light floods the stage to reeal the Eastern Suburbs home of Monte and Scarlett and their young son, Oliver. Monte deals drugs and employs Scarlett's brother, Jimmy.
Jimmy aspires to Monte's position, but lacks the cock sure personality. Jimmy's naivete is in direct contrast to Monte's sophistication. He is the lynch pin of the play, manipulated by all the other characters, including his young nephew.
Tom Conroy's portrayal of Jimmy elicits the piteousness of the feather duster yearning to be a rooster.
Colin Friels is terrifically good as Grubbe, the world weary warrior who has a personal agenda towards the cartel. Equally impressive is his playing of a trio of of disparate other characters – Christos, a criminal acquainted with QANTAS, Bratislav, a Serb stone mason, and Klaus Barbie's sadistic son. As Grubbe, he identifies as both “good cop and bad cop, in one convenient container.”
As the quartet of characters, Friels has a field day, creating characterisations ranging from the hilariously sardonic to the hatefully sadistic.
Robert Cousin's mirror and perspex set and Geoff Cobham's lighting combine to facilitate transformation of place from brightly lit Western Sydney shopping mall food halls to blitzkrieged Berlin nightclubs.
Mortidois a cock a hoop contemporary revenge tragedy. Not for the chicken hearted.
Belvoir presents
Mortido
by Angela Betzien
Director Leticia Cáceres
Venue: Belvoir St Theatre | 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills
Dates: 7 November – 23 December, 2015
Tickets: full from $72 | concession $49
Bookings: 02 9699 3444 | belvoir.com.au
A co-production with State Theatre Company of South Australia
