Dying City

Whether it’s about Iraq or Vietnam, it takes a few years before writers and artists turn to the subject of a contemporary war.   An unsuccessful, unpopular war guarantees they eventually will.  The Sydney Theatre Company is currently staging The Art of War, and Gaiety Theatre – a company committed to presenting plays with queer characters – has just opened with Dying City.

The dying city is Baghdad, but it is also New York where this one-act play is set, in a city still scarred by the impact of 9/11.   Kelly has barely left her apartment since her soldier husband, Craig, was killed in Iraq under circumstances still inadequately explained.   News footage artfully mixed with family pics is projected on the wall.  The concrete rubble of war is rather heavy-handedly strewn around her messy apartment.

Enter Craig’s twin brother, Peter, who is seeking from Kelly relief from his own grief for Craig.   He’s an egocentric and promiscuous young actor. That very night he has left the stage mid-performance because of a homophobic insult from another actor.  

Handsome Tom O’Sullivan plays Peter with chatty charm and underlying neediness.   Saskia Smith as Kelly is reluctant to engage with his needs and then traumatised by what he reveals about her dead husband.

The play leaps into flashbacks between Kelly and Craig, with O’Sullivan playing Peter’s straight twin with equal flair.  Linking the two brothers is an unhappy father, who was a Vietnam vet and a shared exposure to domestic abuse.  Indeed the play is less about Iraq than the related dark family secret of sexual violence, haunting these three characters. 

Each is a richly layered and empathic character, their engagement sensitively scripted and their hesitations well-paced by director Stephen Colyer.  O’Sullivan shines in these twin roles while Smith less easily brings truth to the victim hood of Kelly.