About 110 years ago August Strindberg wrote A Dream Play in order to investigate the problems and sufferings of humanity. About 90 years ago Luigi Pirandello wrote Six Characters in Search of an Author by way of disillusioning theatrical realism. Now Paul Rothwell has used a dreamscape convention to investigate the problems and sufferings of a self-doubting playwright – himself – in You Be The Angel I Be The Ghost.  

Playmarket – which lists 11 Rothwell titles – describes it as “half self-portrait, half existential drama and half parody,” which is a fair summary, not least because it is a third longer than it needs to be given the limits of its scope.

Rothwell is Paul when he writes and Morgan when he’s an actor. In the play Alex Greig plays Paul, the earnest writer engulfed in existential crisis and seeking liberation from his misplacement as a mere human being on this mundane earth via a crazily self-centred angel called Courtney (Elle Wooton). Morgan Rothwell plays Morgan, the altogether more playful if lonely and childlike young man whose dream we are witnessing.

Because it’s a dream it has every right to eschew any semblance of sense, logic, coherence or dramatic structure that leads to an outcome informed by all that has gone before. Fair enough. But that means our interest in the random ‘content’ soon palls, and the performances and production for their own sakes are left to sustain us through the hour.  

Fortunately the collective faith, focus and commitment of the three very different actors, directed by David Lawrence, coalesce with a chemistry that makes every moment seem vital, although the nervous energy that drives the unrelenting pace does suggest they feel unsupported by a purpose bigger than the self-indulgence of their characters.

Last year’s No Taste Forever (which Playmarket now offers in 12-hander and 2-hander versions) is about our obsession with food. Fun Shy (2010) involves religious zealots and fun-loving friends; The Blackening (2009) is a darkly poetic tale of contaminated family dynamics. Christmas Indoors (2008), Kissing Bone (2007), Deliver Us (2007), Golden Boys (2004/6), and Hate Crimes (2005) all expose the dark heart of middle class New Zealand with what we now recognise as astonishing Rothwellian flair.

You Be The Angel I Be The Ghost, by contrast, is the play he writes when he hasn’t got a play within, bursting to be born; it’s a sort of phantom pregnancy play. Which is not to say there are not many delightful moments to be enjoyed. There is a witty riff on waiting and another on copyright, and Courtney and Paul do a great line in spooky voices.

Alex Greig pitches Paul’s earnestness at just the right level to make us laugh. Morgan Rothwell parodies his naïve “emotional virgin” persona beautifully. Elle Wooten makes great sense of Courtney’s elusive and enigmatic character. The nonsense game they play is a wonderfully realised piece of absurdist action.

But I can’t help feeling a sad that so much creative energy and excellence has been spent on such a small idea. The best that can be said is it evokes the dream state very well, presenting itself as totally cogent before it reveals itself as nonsense. The question is, what’s in it for us apart from watching good actors at play? 

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