“Graceland exposes the reality of problematic relationships in an effective, uncomfortable and subtle way.”
It comes as no surprise that Ava Wong Davies won the Ambassador Theatre Group’s Playwright Prize back in September for Graceland.
This is a play that is beautifully written, encapsulating the raw reality of an abusive relationship and focusing not only on the protagonist, who is experiencing the abuse, but also on the people around her and how they contribute with their reactions (or lack thereof) to what is going on behind the scenes. It is a play that showcases every complicated layer of human relationships and paints a very clear picture of abusive behaviours without falling into the trap of wallowing in the drama of the situation. Instead, the writing style echoes what we as people tend to do when we find ourselves in difficult situations with the people we love, we try to move on, to not make it a big deal. To forgive and forget. And so the play keeps going, on to the next thing, and the next and the next.
However, while this play is without question a fantastic piece of writing, it fails to blossom into an equally captivating live performance. It’s biggest strength on paper is perhaps it’s biggest weakness on stage, that being that this play is essentially a 75minute long narration of events delivered as a monologue by a single person.
Sabrina Wu gives a simple and truthful performance throughout and settles more and more into it as the play progresses. She does a great job at including both sides of the audience at all times, without making us feel like we’re at a tennis match.
But where she falls short is in giving us variety and opinion through her performance, the lack of which is what fails to lift this beautiful piece of text off the page and make it an experience that is unfolding before us, rather than a skillfully delivered narration of events. Apart from a small climax that comes towards the end, the text is delivered in pretty much the same tempo, style and rhythm throughout. With very few exceptions, we watch Nina (Wu’s character) recount her interactions with her boyfriend, her friends, and her family, but very rarely do we see her fully immersed in the recreated dialogue or having an opinion on the events she is describing. The text is so powerful that our attention still holds, but what I kept finding myself longing for was more of the character’s feelings and thoughts. It is very clear who the protagonist is speaking to, but what we fail to see is why. What drives her to tell him all of this?
Anna Himali Howard and Izzy Rabey’s directing focuses around a fairly simple symbolism which in no way disservices the play but doesn’t really add anything to it either.
Ultimately, I believe that a good piece of theatre changes you a little bit. Whether you have experienced a strong feeling, you’ve learnt something new, you’ve been challenged by thoughts and ideas or you’ve reflected on things in a different way, you come out a different person than when you went in.
And Graceland definitely has that effect.