Augusta
Writer: Paul Gilchrist
Director: Daniela Giorgi
Erskineville Town Hall
September 10-14, 2024
The short and fast-paced Augusta is very entertaining, coating a thoughtful exploration of power beneath a sparkling exterior. The theme is always topical and vexatious as power is an inevitable outcome of human social life and structure as long as influence and control are valued as enhancing individual or group importance. Paul Gilchrist’s decision to locate his story in a Roman context emphasises both the prestige and inequity of dominion and its instability.
Gilchrist makes his point through the device of a narrator who opens and closes the narrative. We are invited to consider the nature of our stories and consider whether the reason we tell them in the way we tell them is more authentic than whether they be true or not. Was there, for instance, an Augusta, magnificently played by a statuesque Megan Bennetts, the sister of a lesser talented brother and emperor she despises and desires to supplant? Augusta’s various campaigns to seduce, manage and coerce the men – or metaphors – who might be of use to her in advancing her ambitions, not only provide opportunities for some very funny interchanges but also point to the many able Augustas whose aspirations to wield power are denied by patriarchal structures.
We might have some sympathy for her audacious and self-serving character, but for her callous treatment of her sad-faced slave, Sisek. While Sisek has no influence, Alyona Popova’s projection of quiet self-sufficiency gives the slave girl a dignity lacking in her brash mistress. Augusta, however, does not register Sisek’s individuality, and as if Sisek had no reality prior to her servitude, has given her a Roman name, Ancilla. Popova is deeply touching as a girl who has suffered immense loss and degradation but has an inner certitude.
The men of the play are all played by a versatile Russell Cronin who manages to inject each portrayal with some individuality. As Hyacinthus, a eunuch, a victim of the powerful but one who can still garner some influence, he is risk-averse, as the sexy Eugenius he is vain and obtuse, and as the famous Visigoth, Attila the Hun, his ridiculous antics with helmet and cape make entertaining stage business. Yet again, as the Emperor Valentinian, while giving his nearest and not dearest an unpleasant ultimatum, Cronin ably suggests the weakness Augusta despised.
There are some very amusing visual jokes in Augusta, beginning with the introductory signs held up by the narrator, and many others throughout, for instance, Sisek, the sack and Attila and some outrageous one-liners. While hysterical it is also historical in a humorous way and the central irony, Augusta, a Roman title given to women of the imperial family, gave certain vanity rights, and was a way of enhancing male prestige. We need to consider how this might work in a post-colonial context.
Obviously, the partnership between Gilchrist and director Daniela Giorgi is very successful and we hope to see more such historical romps through touchy contemporary issues.
