One Is Warm In Winter, The Other Has A Better View
Platform Youth Theatre
6 December 2009
fortyfivedownstairs
We try not to talk about faith, belief or religion at dinner parties because we don’t want to cause arguments. And for subjects that are mostly based on love and the creation of a better world, it’s always brave to state what you really believe or question the faith of others. Platform Youth Theatre have been asking questions and exploring their own beliefs over the past months. One Is Warm In Winter, The Other Has A Better View is the result.
Working in workshops with writer Adam J A Cass and director Caitlin Dullard, the company has developed a beautiful, open and honest look at faith. Opening with a Jewish and a Muslim narrator who claim they intend to insult everyone and force the audience to reassess the foundations of our own faith, the work thankfully doesn’t insult any belief.
Working with an allegorical story about an apple orchard in a valley that could be nourishing or poisonous, the imagery of climbing and falling and seeing and not seeing allow for a remarkably complex and surprisingly beautiful and poetic discussion of faith or the lack of.
Many opinions are present, but none define the work. The capacity to hate is as extreme as the capacity to love and accept and believe. Cass’s voice can clearly be heard in the controlled language, but he has allowed the opinions of cast to control the content.
Using the full open space of fortyfivedownstairs, Tanja Beer’s design of apples creates an endless space that flows with the magic realism of the script and its combination of fresh, bruised and rotting fruit parallels the script, while creating an imagery of its own – and uses the space perfectly.
On the Platform Youth web site, cast member Lewi writes why he loves everyone involved in the project. If an exploration about faith and religion can create love, well perhaps we should be discussing it more.
This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.
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