Sparring Partner
Written and Directed by Bogdan Koca
Playing until February 2, Pilgrim Theatre, Sydney as part of the Sydney Festival
Review by Anne O'Callaghan
Sparring Partner, says writer and director Bogdan Koca, "exists within its own structures and is ruled by its own dynamics ... it doesn't adopt any existing and objectively accepted forms of play writing. Its rhythm and colour are as important as the story that I weaved through it." Perhaps this statement summarises both the strengths and shortcomings of the play.
The play centres on the character of a chess master (Koca) who mysteriously disappeared from the professional circuit some five years ago and now squats in an abandoned theatre which is threatened with demolition. He needs a sparring partner to practise his game in order to reclaim his title as world champion and have sufficient funds to buy the theatre.
Answering a newspaper advertisement, a stranger who obviously knows a great deal about chess (Rostislav Orel) comes to the theatre to take up the position.
An intriguing interplay ensues in which a number of questions are posed but left unanswered. Is this stranger in fact the current world champion? Is the woman he is about to marry the estranged wife of his employer? What is the truth and what is concocted? How can the two meaningfully communicate with the other? How does one define and defend one's identity, particularly in times of stress and challenges to its integrity?
In the end the two decide that the only way they can have an honest relationship is by being completely dishonest with each other, all the time.
In large part, Sparring Partner successfully draws the audience into this invented reality, although the tension of the web definitely slackens as the play progresses. Perhaps I missed something vitally important, but it seemed at times there were scenes which obscured the themes, rather than deepened an appreciation of them.
Nonetheless, both actors bring considerable skill to the production — Koca is a graduate from the Academy of Theatrical Arts in Warsaw and Orel is a graduate of the St Petersburg Theatre Academy, regarded by many as one of the best in the world, in the creative traditions of Stanislavsky and Meyerhold.