Eddie Goes To Poetry City

In ‘obedience’ to the dictate of playwright Richard Foreman, director Richard Murphet has melded the two existing versions of this play, and the company has reinvented the locations and all the ‘characters’ apart from Eddie. Songs were also added ‘for good measure’.

A pleasing randomness pervades this production as everyman Eddie (Alistair Frearson) visits a city of poetry and is swept along in its frustrating labyrinth of dreams, nightmare, displacement, intrigue and desire. It is as though we too have entered a poem.

The Victorian College of the Arts third year acting student company, together with production students from all three year levels, bring a youthful energy to an entertaining collage of metaphorical fun, with inter-textual references aplenty. Alistair Frearson is quite endearing as the confused centre-piece,

Set design featured two major structures variously placed to imply an office, a train, a club, a restaurant and so on. Audio design was crisp, and the various musical additions impressive. Costumes are eminently stylish, with occasional splashes of surprise.

Eddie Goes to Poetry City may be hard to grasp, and rather too chaotic for some, but the intent and execution of this company makes it an edifying theatrical encounter.

Lucy Graham

Members of Company 2013, 'Eddie Goes to Poetry City' by Richard Foreman, Adapted and Directed by Richard Murphet, VCA Contemporary Plays Season 2013. Photo: Jeff Busby.