Traps

Traps has been described as a play with a “messy ontology” and this makes it a challenging text to interpret or perform. Caryl Churchill plays with theatre and narrative conventions in a much more complex way than even directors such as Goddard or Lynch did with cinema. The story is not told in flashbacks or episodes but in a strange, looped continuum (also known as a mobius strip), which is eerily asserted on the stage.

Laurence Strangio has completely embraced these elements and allowed the power of the dialogue to be foregrounded in this performance. La Mama HQ might seem a constrained space for a play about six characters who all intersect and have a deep connection on some level or at some stage in their adult life. However, the space is fully exploited to extract and enhance every detail of the text. In fact, it provides a level of intimacy with the characters which is essential to facilitate a connection with these everyday yet unusual personas, whose troubled lives unfold through such a loose narrative. 

Scott Middleton (Jack), Gabriel Partington (Reg), Leigh Scully (Albert), Meg Spencer (Syl), Cait Spiker (Christie) and Dom Westcott (Del) all deliver finely balanced performances and make this show a real ensemble piece. Their approach is often intense, but it also has a real sense of distance and objectivity as they candidly expose the most intimate, confronting, and raw details of each character. Scully makes Albert’s paranoia a clear pathology, Middleton gives Jack a seamless combination of arrogance and charm, Spencer crosses over from lover, wife and mother with astonishing ease, Spiker conveys the fragility and vulnerability of Christie with enormous clarity, Westcott brings out both the fearful and endearing qualities of Del’s character, while Partington is able to make Reg at times menacing and at times benign. 

The set and costumes are wonderfully designed to be timeless and universal, while also cognisant of the different historical periods that may be overlapping in the story. The somewhat surreal finale of the play is masterfully managed and exhibits some very surprising or unexpected elements of staging. This all helps to cement what turns out to be an extraordinary opportunity to be a part of some absolutely gripping drama.

Patricia Di Risio 

Photographer: Darren Gill