Ruins أطلال

This beautiful story of an Australian mum visiting her ancestral home in Lebanon and digging in ancient ruins for her roots is so artfully told, it leaves you wanting more.

Ruins lasts just 40 minutes.

After the collapse of her marriage and death of her father, Amelia’s departure begins in domestic chaos, with little help from the ghost of her Dad always offering advice. Emily Ayoub, who created and directed Ruins with Madeline Baghurst, is thoroughly engaging as the curious Amelia as is Tony Poli playing her father.  Both central performers are perfectly nuanced and authentic.  

Dad too fondly recalls his visit back in 1982 to the historic city of Baalbeck to see his own father but he returned unresolved with his past.  He ruinously leaves behind a piece of his heart.  Amelia, once in Baalbeck, digs much further than he did, literally  – she joins an archaeological dig.

While these metaphors of émigré displacement sound heavy-handed, the quick transitions in this storytelling are entwined with beguiling magic and movements from the ensemble, Adam Alkuheli, Piumi Wijesundara and Baghurst.  Reels of cloth, furniture, a mirror, an angled door, are precisely passed and danced between them to Johnny Yang’s spectral score.  This sort of physical theatre is typical of Sydney’s Clockfire Theatre but Ruins adds a full thoughtful and witty script.

What their kinetic fluidity allows us, with added projections (Laura Turner) and lighting shifts (Frankie Clarke), is to be lead seamlessly and without confusion across periods of time, from tourists visiting Baalbeck a century before back to its mythical kings.

These historic snapshots are just one of the facets of Ruins which could be expanded into a fuller experience.  I hope they do so because Clockfire are already making magic on this tiny stage downstairs at Belvoir.  

Martin Portus

Photographer: Geoff Magee