Review Patrick Meyers’ ‘K2’

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 8

Review Patrick Meyers’ ‘K2’

“K2,” by Patrick Meyers, directed by Richard Huber for the Burning Airlines Theatre Co-operative. At the Christchurch Youth Centre from Friday, July 21. Reviewed by John Farnsworth.

It must be something in the water that is producing such a good theatre season this year. “K2” is an impressive, professional production from a brand new company with a play which deserves enthusiastic support. The theatre itself is dominated by the huge image of the so-called Killer Mountain, K2, a peak second only to Everest. Here, in the unusual and cavernous space of the youth centre, it is memorably represented by a vaulted pyramid of scaffolding, triangular canvas and white vertical planking that soars beyond the top of the stage. On a single small ledge, two trapped climbers (NIC Farra and Chris Harding) spend the entire play alternately squabbling and co-operating as they try to escape. What prevents them is a fall the previous day that has left one with a broken leg and both short of a crucial rope dangling almost out of reach above. What animates the production is Trudi Urlwin’s set and her icily atmospheric lighting, endless wind effects and superrealist performance style. This involves the cumbersome handling of mtygen bottles, crampons, multiple layers of

clothing and a full panoply of climbing gear, the heavy movements and laboured breathing of thin air, and some dangerously credible assaults up the sheer wooden planking. Beyond that it depends on a tight, vivid American script with strong echoes of Sam Shepard that resonates on numerous levels as it moves from quarrels to comedy to elliptical, metaphoric stories. This is rich material which Nlc Farra and Chris Harding make the most of in a pair of grand performances. Taylor (Farra) is a volatile, energetic, foulmouthed individual who is the polar opposite of the mild, clear-sighted, yarnspinning physicist, Harold (Harding). Yet the whole push and pull of their relationship stands as a metaphor for the meaning they make of the inherently meaningless activity of climbing and their very different responses to facing death.

The result is two performances that are vividly presented and ably directed by Richard Huber, who manages the pacing of difficult transitions and the sudden reversals, tensions and Ironies of the script with fluency and sure sense of rhythm. The upshot is some engrossing theatre that captivated a widely assorted audience. It is an Impressive and encouraging Christchurch debut that.ls well worth seeing. )