Arts and Culture: Drama Critique Svetlana in Slingbacks.

Essay by dogfaceCollege, UndergraduateC+, July 2003

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Svetlana in Slingbacks is described as a quirky, powerful, funny story that revolves around the Fretlovs. I didn't find it funny, though maybe it was that I could not see the funny side, every one else was laughing.

Svetlana in Slingbacks, was written by Valentina Levkowiez amies to be something that is can not be. On one hand it is a comedy about an unusual family, alien in its new surroundings, on the other it has the ability to be a play that allows the audience a fly on the wall look at how a family copes with the changes of fitting into a different society, the problems that occur when dealing with mental illness all along with the problems that are dealt with in every day life in the 1960's. Unfortunately it can not be both, and this is where the play falls down.

The opening line was so powerful, Svetlana standing in the corner of the theater "take your pills mother" she says in a strong and overpowering voice.

Svetlana is a 30 something year old woman reflecting back on her life as a child recently brought to Australia from Russia after the war. While actor Karina Devery played the role of Svetlana Fretlov well, it is difficult to watch a 30 something year old woman play the role of a child. Devery looks awkward in the school girls uniform and seems to clash aesthetically with the other actors, it is also some what disturbing to watch Devery playing a baby eating her own feces as the play reflects further back to a time when things were much happier for the Fretlovs. Though it is uncertain weather or not Levkowiez has written this scene as a parody that suggests that neither Svetlana, her family or her life...