THE PERVERT LAURA
DIRECTOR: Louis Viljoen
CAST: Emily Child, Terry Norton, Nicholas Pauling, Guy de Lancey and Sarah Potter
VENUE: The Little Theatre, Hiddingh Campus
UNTIL: December 20
RATING: *****
JUST when you thought Louis Viljoen’s drama could not get any darker, lo and behold! It has, in the form of The Pervert Laura. In a departure from this playwright’s preferred genre of political satire, his new work probes the depths of a gravely disturbed female’s mind, with eviscerating effect. The resolute suppression of sentiment gives the play a clinical coolness in keeping with the tone of a case study, which effectively counters the intensity of the subject matter.
Laura’s steady descent into depravity is tracked by a series of encounters with a variety of interlocutors, each conversation revealing more about her troubled past as well as her current mind-set, and marking successive acts of the drama towards its dénouement. First we have Laura engaging in some verbal sparring with her therapist in a crisp exposition; it seems she is about to lose her job through inappropriate behaviour in the office, and her marriage is on shaky ground. Next she is crude and wilful in an unedifying attempt at an extramarital liaison with a man as psychologically damaged as herself; then comes an emotionally fraught visit to her younger sister who shared the trauma of their father murdering their mother in cold blood; and finally, the overdue confrontation between herself and her surviving parent, released on parole after 20 years.
Given the prevalence of domestic violence in today’s South Africa, this is a topical theme; but Viljoen infuses it with a dramatic potency worthy of Greek tragedy, lifting it above a mere documentary study. The script alternates between everyday language laced with current obscenities, and speech of poetic beauty in the service of philosophy, particularly when Laura’s father articulates his personal brand of existentialism.
Under the dramatist’s direction, the cast of five achieve theatre of a calibre seldom attained even by actors of talent and experience. Emily Child is stellar in the pivotal role of Laura; newcomer Sarah Potter impresses as the younger sister, and Terry Norton shrewdly captures the persona of Laura’s psychiatrist. Nicholas Pauling, as the nameless individual targeted for sex by Laura, is brilliantly understated and Guy de Lancey gives a riveting performance as the father. Between them they generate mesmerising drama.
This is a play not to be missed by lovers of thought-provoking theatre.