Theatre review: The Confessions

A British / Australian / Luxembourgish co-production, Alexander Zeldin's The Confessions, which he also directs at the Lyttelton, is based on conversations with his mother and her peers, and follows one woman's life from Australia in 1943 - when, as a child, she meets her father for the first time returning from the war and is confused because she thought the portrait of him on the wall was her father - to London in 2021, when she finally tells her son, who's been quizzing her just like the real author, to stop poking around for more details of her life. For the most part Amelda Brown narrates the story as the older Alice, while Eryn Jean Norvill plays her younger self in the scenes, but they occasionally trade places at particularly critical moments; perhaps Alice is so shaken by these events she steps out of her body, and can only confront them with the benefit of time.

And there are some traumatic events explored, not least of all a sexual assault that eventually leads her to make some dramatic changes, but the play jumps in and out of her life at big and small moments.

So despite bad grades at school and being kicked out of University after failing her first year, Alice still sees herself as belonging in academia. On her mother's advice she marries naval officer Graham (Joe Bannister,) but his reaction to her having a platonic male friend (Yasser Zadeh) is an early clue that the marriage won't last. An open relationship with a poetry lecturer (Jerry Killick) isn't quite enough to satisfy her, but it does bring her back into the academic world, (Pamela Rabe is a scene-stealing feminist firebrand) and revives her ambitions to write.

Zeldin's production shows a strong European influence: Marg Horwell's set is a deconstructed one with stages within stages; Paule Constable's lighting never quite takes the house lights down, giving a suggestion that the whole thing is happening in the school hall where the story starts. There's a studied artificiality to the whole thing and even a protractedFULL FRONTAL MALE NUDITY ALERT!from Joe Bannister of all people.

In some ways this sense of detachment works for the aspects of Alice that make her an enigma: She's genuinely an academic failure in younger life and still sees herself as not very bright when looking back, but there are certainly some major achievements along the way - we're left to wonder how much her successes and failures are products of the way society treats her. On the other hand it does mean it's hard to emotionally invest in her, never mind the other characters - best friend Susie (Gabrielle Scawthorn) is a constant in her life, but never feels like a fleshed-out character. Some interesting ideas on a woman trying to find her place in a world where women's position seems to be ever-changing, and though it keeps us firmly at arm's length Norvill's performance is quietly impressive.

The Confessions by Alexander Zeldin is booking until the 4th of November at the National Theatre's Lyttelton.

Running time: 2 hours straight through.

Photo credit: Christophe Raynaud de Lage.