Liberty Equality Fraternity

Overview

Liberty Equality Fraternity, currently playing at the Ensemble Theatre, is a friendly farce about internet security and bureaucratic incompetence at ASIO. Looking to Kafka and referencing The Matrix, Geoffrey Atherden of Mother and Son fame has written a spy story meets existential crisis. Designer Michael Hankin has created a fittingly bland setting for the ASIO headquarters, with a beige office housing a pot plant, table, and chairs and a large smart screen on the wall. Sound designer Stephen Toulmin has successfully sourced the world’s most annoying waiting room music to set the scene.

Left-leaning mother of two Orlagh (Caroline Brazier) has found herself in an interrogation room only to be worn down not by torture but by the bumbling ineptitude of trainee interrogator Alex (Andrew Ryan). Orlagh doesn't know why she's there and nor, it seems, does he (despite the vast amount of data he has gleaned from the internet about her). His willful stupidity drives us and Orlagh to the edge. Ryan has characterised Alex as a sort of David Brent who by some recruitment miracle has found employment as a spy.

The sheer length of his dim interrogation is almost too much to bear, and while comic moments offer some respite, the first half of the play is endurance viewing. Brazier as Orlagh makes a believable eastern suburbs mother, but her journey from terrified to triumphant is slightly off kilter. We're never quite sure how high the stakes are as she shifts between panicked concern for her children and delirious but always friendly banter with Alex.

Helmut Bakaitis's entrance is a welcome reprieve from Alex, and we find him playing the same type of well-healed sage he played in The Matrix Reloaded. Just as he explained the Matrix to Neo, he calmly explains the much less glamorous situation to Orlagh. This moment of parody is dramatically satisfying and Bakaitis's performance is beautifully polished.

Structurally the play is slightly wonky; Atherden's writing takes itself too seriously to amount to a wicked comedy, and the fluid reality set up by Shannon Murphy's direction is not fully realised. It's an interesting topic but the bones of the play are not solid enough for it to be fulfilling.

Photo by Heidrun Lohr.