Oracles and Miracles
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Let Live Theatre at the Hollywood Fringe Festival
Through June 30
Adapted from a novel by New Zealand writer and oral historian Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Oracles and Miracles tells the story of two sisters growing up in extreme poverty in Christchurch, New Zealand in the 1930s and 40s. Written by Norelle Scott, it’s a straightforward narrative chronicled by two older women looking back on their lives and contemplating the choices they made and the events which influenced them. This “look-homeward” rumination lends the drama the potential to be affecting — a factor that multiplies if you grew up, as I did, with a strong female bond to a loving sister.
This barebones Fringe production is a mixed bag: directed by Leah Patterson, it features several strong and/or capable performances, and a weaker portrayal that unfortunately undermines the show.
The storyline, spanning the characters’ lives from age 6 to 21, unwinds in the overlapping memories of sisters Ginnie and Fag, portrayed on video in their senior years by Donogh Rees and Elizabeth Hawthorne respectively, while their youthful selves are depicted on stage by Siobhan Marshall and Amy Waller. The two girls are among 13 siblings of a viperous mother, and a working dad who exits their lives early, leaving the family in even more penurious straits than before. The central tension is between the girls and their mom, who favors her sons and supports the latter’s propensity to beat their sisters for no reason at all. This unpleasant matriarch comes through loud and clear in the strong, skilled performances of both Rees and Hawthorne; through their recollections (as talking heads), this never-seen character becomes a palpably villainous presence in the drama.
As young teens, the girls are expected to work to bring money into the household. Ginnie unhappily but obediently spends years working in a shoe factory, but the more ambition-driven Fag musters her secretarial skills and finds a white-collar job, her first step out of the slum and eventually, through marriage, into a wealthier, more leisured class of people (who never cease looking down on her). Ginnie marries a poor man and, as fickle life so often dictates, two people who were once inseparable are now estranged and awkward with each other.
As Ginnie, Marshall slips comfortably into the persona of an unpretentious working-class gal wearied yet still unbowed by the hardships in her life. But Waller isn’t quite on the mark as the rebellious and upwardly mobile Fag. Too many lines are played out to the audience and the down-to-earth credibility so essential to a working-class drama is in too short supply. The production’s most genuinely compelling moments are on the video, where both Rees and especially Hawthorne make you understand what women of this era and class may have lived through. And the juxtaposition of the perspective of age with the perspective of youth is a poignant one.
Note: It bears mention that the actors’ distinctly New Zealand dialect requires concentrated listening, especially in scenes that do not drive the story forward, e.g. earlier sequences where as children the girls play at being movie stars.
The Actors Company, Let Live Theatre, 916 N. Formosa Ave., West Hollywood; Fri., Jun. 28, 5 p.m.; Sat., Jun. 29; 10 p.m.; Sun., Jun. 30, 11 a.m.; through Jun. 30.
https://hff19.org/5969. Running time: approximately 90 minutes.
