Belleville @ Red Stitch Actors Theatre

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Wed 30 Apr 2014 - Sat 31 May 2014

Halfway through this Australian premier of Amy Herzog's highly acclaimed play your correspondent found herself wondering whether the French suburb of the title was fictional. 'Belle ville' is French for beautiful town, but the setting for the story that was unfolding on the Red Stitch 'stage' was far from idyllic.

Belleville is a real Parisian suburb, with an ethnically diverse population, represented here by French-African couple Amina and Alioune. The action takes place entirely in the claustrophic apartment of Zack and Abby, a distinctly unlikeable pair of American WASPs in Paris played by Christina O'Neill and Paul Ashcroft, who are portrayed as so ghastly it is very difficult to feel empathy for them.


Their landlords, Amina and Alioune (Tariro Mavondo and Renaud Momtbrun), are by contrast upstanding tax-paying citizens with a child and a reasonable work ethic. And they are French-Africans. Quelle horreur! They provide a small beam of light in the otherwise brutal world of Zack and Abby's kitchen, as we watch their lives start to unravel in the face of the lies and deceit Zack has perpetrated on his unsuspecting, fragile wife.

Zack has embarked on a fictional medicine career in the misguided belief that living in Paris is what his wife wants above all else. For her part Abby is trying to recapture the mythical Paris experience of her parents in their youth. The foundations of their sojourn in Paris, and by extension their marriage, are built on shifting sands and are destined to crumble.


The final word goes to Amina – but its significance could be lost on a non-French-speaking audience. From memory it was something like "It doesn't really matter" – a comment on the disdain with which Amina and Alioune held the self-absorbed American couple. Belleville only serves to reinforce the stereotype of the American in Paris. There is very little of the redemptive in this intense domestic drama, and this production makes it hard to work out the message the playwright is trying to convey.

As always, Red Stitch is a delightfully intimate venue full of goodwill and bonhomie, where one production's stars are the next production's bar staff. It's a place where risk-taking is not a dirty word, and in most cases it pays off. This production of Belleville is more miss than hit, but is saved by the illuminating performances of guest actors Mavondo and Momtbrun.

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!date 30/04/2014 -- 31/05/2014
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