Death stalks a woman's spiritual journey

February 22, 2007
Issue 

The Gates of Egypt

Written by Stephen Sewell

Directed by Kate Gaul

Company B, Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney

Until March 11

Stephen Sewell's passion has long been to write plays that connect strongly with society — a political theatre that presents people in sometimes life-and-death struggle with social forces. He has been criticised for making his plays too polemical, avoiding emotional depth. With The Gates of Egypt he has achieved a deeply satisfying fusion of the personal and the political. It may be his finest play yet, here given a powerful world premiere production by Kate Gaul.

Sewell began writing the play in the wake of his mother's recent death, after which, he writes, he "began to think about our present plight, this sense of phony unreality affecting everything" in contemporary Australia. The story that resulted is of an elderly widow, Clarice, who goes to Egypt to find herself and the meaning of her existence. Her quest is framed within the Egyptian myth of the afterlife, but also in the context of the contemporary Arab world.

The lights come up on a minimalist stage set by Brian Thompson, a vast empty space that becomes the burial chamber of a pyramid, a suburban backyard, or a dreamscape depending on the subtle lighting design by Verity Hampson.

The action begins at an Aussie barbecue where Clarice (Lynette Curran) tells her daughter Leanne (Anna Lise Phillips) and son-in-law Ralph (Damian Rice) she is going to Egypt to "become real". Aggressive, racist Ralph ridicules her for going to such a dangerous place, while Leanne, who has a troubled relationship with her mother, fears a deeper purpose in her journey. Indeed, when Clarice mentions the killing of 54 women and children in Iraq that day, Leanne takes it as a veiled criticism of her own materialistic, shallow lifestyle.

Then we see Clarice in Cairo, where she has befriended a loud couple of tourists from New York, hilariously played by Jacqueline Linke and Michael Denkha, who also turn out to have a deeper purpose for their visit.

As scenes move effortlessly between Australia and Egypt, past and present, reality and imagination, we also meet Clarice's dead husband Frank (Russell Kiefel), who appears from time to time to talk to her and evoke their deep love.

It seems almost wish-fulfilment when, at the end of act one, Clarice is kidnapped by Islamist terrorists inside a burial chamber. The second act sees the playing out of the kidnapping and its effect on the family back home. The ruthless terrorist leader, played to frightening effect by Hazem Shammas, orders his offsider to torture Clarice, telling her it is in retaliation for all the Arabs who have suffered at the hands of Western invaders tacitly supported by uncaring citizens of wealthy countries.

Meanwhile, back at Sylvania Waters, Ralph is warning Leanne that the terrorists won't get a cent of ransom money out of him, and that Alexander Downer can look after Clarice's welfare.

The tragic conclusion of the play is accompanied by the moral journey of Leanne and Ralph, who have come to understand that beyond Clarice's eccentricities, she was a person with a huge capacity for love. And they admire her struggle for authenticity in a shallow, mean-spirited society.

This big, ambitious play about love and death, why we are here and who we are, grapples with ultimate values and purpose. As in the best Shakespearean play, it mixes the comic and the tragic while retaining the all-too-flawed humanity of its characters.

Can love redeem all, including crimes against humanity? This is one of the questions audiences are left to ponder in this powerful production of an important play from one of our major dramatists.

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