„T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T” at New Zealand International Arts Festival
Laurie Atkinson, THE DOMINION POST
I have to report that T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. is, at one level, pretty tough going. Its inspiration comes from Teorema, Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1968 cult movie, of which a noted acerbic film critic said that, if it was not the worst film ever made, "you can't blame it for not trying".
A more puzzled critic described it as "perversely difficult", but went on to write that "it is serene, that it is ridiculous, that it has the power at some subterranean level to remain in your memory long after you think you've dismissed it".
Polish director Grzegorz Jarzyna's stage adaptation follows the film's plot closely: a rich industrialist's family is disrupted when a complete stranger walks into his home and proceeds to seduce one and all. When the stranger mysteriously leaves, the industrialist, his wife, son, daughter and the maid go to pieces.
Who is the visitor? Pasolini said he was a hypothesis and that he represents the divine, and that his film was largely about the cage of words in which we are all ensnared. The film has apparently only 923 words in it; the stage version probably has a few more (there are surtitles) but speech is not important - except at the beginning and end - images are. The director is reported as saying the family reflects contemporary society and at the root of it is the growing concept of consumerism.
The play begins and ends with a press conference in which the industrialist, who has given his factory to the workers as a result of the stranger's visit, is questioned about miracles, God, capitalism and morality. At the start he answers arrogantly, at the end his answers reflect what he has learnt from the stranger: we have all lost our way.
The connection between what is said at the last press conference and the scenes of a sterile, moribund family life seem to me to be tenuous. Sex with the stranger, which Pasolini described as metaphorical, makes them all see their lives differently, though why they behave as they eventually do is never made clear.
However, while the play remains an irritating puzzle, the setting, staging, lighting, music and the acting are without doubt quite wonderful and will remain long in my memory.