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Written by Juan Incognito
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The Tutor
7 out of 10
Writer: Dave Armstrong
Director: Danny Mulheron
Cast:
Phil Vaughan – John Sellers
Jason Whyte – Richard Holton
Ry Jessup – Nathan Sellers
Circa
Saturday 19/11/2005 (this play has finished in Wellington)
Running time 80 minutes
Karate Party prides itself on presenting a cultured and loving image to the reading public; we strive to review the things you want to hear about. Imagine a proactive, yet delightfully reactive talking book. That is how we see ourselves, and how we hope you see us. Based on this worthy hypothesis I volunteered to review The Tutor, a play that was shown at Circa in Wellington. So with a steely resolve, and deadened eyes I repaired to Circa on a Saturday to watch this “[T]hought-provoking political comedy”, accompanied by only my customary theatre visiting turtleneck jersey and a paper cup filled with lemonade.
The Tutor has been playing at Circa since late October, and has gathered favourable reviews, which are deserved. The acting is reasonably solid, with the three actors being quite believable in their roles, Ry Jessup being particulary good in his teenage lout role. The humour is topical, making frequent reference to newsworthy matters, which makes for frequent laughter from the audience. The plot is quite solid as well, father does not want to lose son so needs help in showing he is a good father. Sure, it is a cliché, the bastion of a thousand average sitcoms, but hey, it works, and it has a real edge to it that you don’t get on TV, namely whores and discussion of hugging and kissing statistics. Boy, it is hot stuff.
The action is based on 3 characters: a middle aged self-made millionaire father, an angry teenage son, and a thirty something teacher with a conscience. The father must get the troublesome son to start performing at school; otherwise he may lose the son to his estranged former wife. To do so he hires a thirty-something disillusioned-with-society maths tutor. This is where the play shows some originality. Rather than winning the boy’s trust with the usual sitcom tricks, the tutor instead only wins respect when he too apparently sells out to the millionaire father’s money. This device is used to make some social commentary on New Zealand society, which almost made me cry.
Perhaps I am being too harsh on theatre as a device to make social commentary. A lot of people do not like the neo-liberal reforms of the 1984-1992 period, things did change radically and a way of life was swept away. As a child of the aforementioned reforms I guess I do not have that same depth of feeling as the writer, but I feel your pain. I too have experienced loss, but it was kind of superficial so I’ll not embarrass us both by mentioning it here. On a more serious note the play contrasts bluntly the two sides of the reform, the rich merchant princes who did well and live well, and the thoughtful, left wing middle class types who resent this new materialistic, hedonistic lifestyle. The new New Zealand vs the old. Cohabitation or co-option? Sure it is a little simplistic, but if a playright can't explore stereotypes then I'm not sure life is worth living.
The language used in the play is refreshingly normal, with plenty of swearing, direct questioning and the trotting out of popular culture scapegoats, namely racial slang and the demonising of Christian fundamentalism. Just like in real life. After watching a play like this sometimes I do wonder what it would be like to be such an easily offended delicate flower, shrinking at the first sign of strong language, tears of impotent rage flowing down my cheeks as I watch the relentless moral decline of our glorious society. I then yearn to be the type of person who can deliberately watch a play, movie or TV show knowing offence will follow, then rushing to the typewriter, a stream of vitriol poring onto the crisp white page! Oh the horror! The children!
Then I wake up in a hot sweat.
I enjoyed The Tutor. Sure, it was not be a great play, and in ten years it will be relegated to the graveyard of good but forgettable plays. But that shouldn’t take away from the fact that it is an entertaining work that will appeal to all but the most morally repressed of audiences. Dave Armstrong and Danny Mulheron can be proud of their work.
Acting: 7
Script: 8
Set: 6
Total: 7/10 = Worth seeing
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