The President, Sydney Theatre Company and Gate Theatre, Ros Packer Theatre, 13 Apr-19 May

 

Thomas Bernhard is regarded as one of Austria's great writers - a novelist and playwright, his examinations of power and political criticism saw him develop quite the following there. However he's rarely been performed in English, so this was a rare opportunity to engage with his work.

I have to be honest, this didn't quite enthrall me. The play consists of two interrupted monologues broken into scenes, before intermission mostly dominated by the first lady (Olwen Fouéré) and by the titular president (Hugo Weaving) afterwards - both are narcissists, reflecting on themselves and their situation as besieged rulers of an unnamed country to servants, lackeys and (in the president's case) a lover - never really reflecting on what they may have done in their roles as rulers to become besieged. At two hours twenty it becomes a bit of an endurance test - I'm not entirely sure whether it's just Bernhard's writing or particularly in Gitta Honebegger's translation that this rarely becomes particularly compelling as neither is really saying anything particularly interesting - nothing really develops or deepens over the length of the show. There are attempts at absurdist comedy with the various lackeys - Julie Forsyth as the aid, Mrs.afterward Frolick, gets the best of this as she scampers around preparing an outfit for the robed Fouéré - but this ultimately becomes repetitive with too little payoff. In general, Fouéré slightly gets the worst of it - her half has less variety in it than Weaving's, but neither are really working with the strongest text, and Tom Creed's stately pacing and static staging never really lets this get out of first gear.

Weaving is one of Australia's living legends as an actor but, whether due to the flattery of performing this on two continents (as a co-production having a run in both Dublin and Sydney), or in the hope of introducing a european success story into the English Language repertoire, he's carrying a play that really doesn't say very much that's partiularly deep about politics, rulers, or the human condition - beyond knowing that those in power are often narcissistic bores, it features a lot of talk but doesn't really have a lot to say. It's a disappointment.