Primal Scream
Already tired though it is only past ten in the morning, a long day ahead of him, considering his correspondence, responses and responsibilities, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata bringing no comfort, Doctor Bernard Gatling is frustrated by the tardiness of his appointment, for her sake as much as his own wasted time, a psychologist who has been asked to assess the fitness of a young woman on parole to be considered for permanent release, her indifference to the meeting not a good indication.
Sugar having served three years for the attempted murder of her stepfather, her alcoholic mother dying while she was inside, when she arrives she is defiant, confrontational, provocative, evasive, yet despite her attire, attitude and coarse language, mocking him as “Saint Bernard, earning a place in heaven” and his trashy novel Primal Scream and refusing to discuss her past, key to demonstrating her rehabilitation, it becomes apparent she is his intellectual match.
The thrusts of the dialogue sometimes parried and sometimes scoring points, Bernard (Neil Robert) grudgingly realising he will have to open himself more than he would like to make any headway with Sugar (Carly Paoli), the only way to get close to her and examine her deep wounds is to expose his own, writer Robin Hawdon’s two-hander Primal Scream moving fast with no room for those who flag or are unprepared to defend themselves or their positions.
Noted opera singer Paoli making her professional acting debut, she has not chosen a puff piece as a vehicle to showcase her ferocious talent, the letter opener the bluntest weapon in the room in an intense hour about hope and the healing power of music brought to the fore in the finale, the only frustration the abruptness of the closing blackout, through the “act one” subtitle on the flyer may indicate the difficult process is only begun, not finished.
