 |
|
6.1.3 Articles about "Daughters of Heaven."
Calder, Peter. New Zealand Herald, Apr. 15, 1993. p. 2:1. [jb,mf] "To moider mother"
Houlahan, Mike. Evening Post, May 27, 1992. p. 41. [jb] "Daughters of Heaven relives matricide case."
Rathgen, Elody. The Press (Christchurch), Oct. 21, 1991. [mf] "Court's 'Daughters of Heaven'" Appropriately, it was Christchurch where the play "Daughters of Heaven" premiered. The murder of Honora Rieper by her daughter, Pauline Parker, and Pauline's friend, Juliet Hulme, had Chrischurch people riveted in 1954. It brought attention and infamy to the city nationally and internationally. The first production of the play is a superb piece of theatre in its conception and direction and it deserves attention locally and further afield. It treats the murder case, the relationship between the two girls, and the situations of their families with depth, sensitivity and respect. "DofH" will stand on its own as a fascinating text for performance. But for those closer to it, it is especially poignant. The audience is shown the situation largely through the eyes of Bridget O'Malley, housekeeper in the Hulme household. This is an interesting device, similar to Robert Bolt's use of the common man in "A Man for All Seasons." It provides an excellent structure for the play, and a perspective on the hypocritically moralistic but fascinated public interest in the case, at the time and since. Outraged by the events she might have been, but Mrs. O'Malley's last cruel act leaves its own sense of horror. Yvonne Martin portrays the small-minded woman very well, with a down-to-earth aspect. Nancy Schroeder and Louise Frost, as Juliet and Pauline, set up an intensity which keeps the audience focussed throughout. The first act is long but not once did attention wander. In real life there was between the two girls a deep emotional and intellectual connection, as well as the physical and sexual one. They totally shared their dreams and aspirations of a life together in exciting international cities as writers and thinkers. The boredom of small-town New Zealand would have to be left behind if they were to be able to fulfil their potential. For all the touch of arrogance in both, and particularly in Juliet, the audience cannot help but be touched by the desire of the two to break the bonds of their ordinary lives. Clearly, they were much more able than the conventional mores of the time were willing to recognize, let alone encourage, in young women. Schroder and Frost convey the love of the girls, their shared understanding and pleasure at spending time with each other. However, similarly well dealt with are the dillemmas of their two families. Honora and Herbert Reiper (sic), the parents of Pauline, played by Sandra Rasmussen and Paul Barrett, are overwhelmed by their daughter's gifts and ambitions. Understandably, they resent her preference for the Hulme household, and they worry about Juliet's influence. The audience is clearly presented with Honora's restricting concern, and Herbert's gentle helplessness. The Hulme household, for all its material security and glamour, is not one of understanding and support for an adolescent girl. Juliet's need to rely on Pauline for intimacy is placed in a context of her parents' absorption in their own affairs. Darien Tackle (sic) is superb in the role of Hilda Hulme, and Ross Gumbley as Walter Perry is strong in support. But the murder of a mother is a terrible act in any circumstances. This play does not avoid any of the issues. The final scene of act one conveys it fully in tableaux, combining image, lighting and sound. The compelling interest of the play was clearly seen during interval but the absorbed discussions of the first night audience. There is nothing to deflect the concentration, including the subtle and flexible single set design by Tony Geddes. Michelanne Forster has not sensationalized her account, which is well and fully researched. Elric Hooper has delved deep into the psyche and motivation of each character and helped his cast attain a complex and many-sided interpretation of the events. "DinH" (sic) is a play Christchurch can be proud of. It brings into the open events which have caused pain not only because of a dreadful murder, but because of the uninformed and unsympathetic gossip which accompanied it. Few will be able to ignore the deeply felt experiences of the two young women, and the tragedy of the events for the lives of all those involved.
Riley, Brett. Listener & TV Times, Dec. 9, 1991, p. 44. "Well-crafted and a knockout" The bare facts of the Parker-Hulme case are macabre: two adolescent girls from opposite sides of the tracks in 50s Christchurch construct and inhabit a delusion of magnificence and omnipotence, then carefully plot and carry out the murder of the lowly mother, who disapproves of thir liason, by bludgeoning her over the head with a brick 45 times. For 37 years the city has sat on a scandal that now rises with a vengeance. First the book ("Parker & Hulme: A Lesbian View"); then the play ("DofH"); soon its TV version. To 90s lesbians the girls have been resurrected as unlikely folk-heroines--bright women in a repressive dull town, merely resolving a personal crisis in the only way the powerless kids know how. Murder is less bad if you're a woman and a lesbian. Enter Michelanne Forster's play, which instead sucks us into a world of delusion, escapism, hypocrisy, insanity, forbidden attraction and remorseless bloody murder, all without dodgy moral judgements or fashionable intellectual cartwheels or even once smacking its lips. She does not lift the lid on a smug provincial city, as some would want, but voyages into two immature minds that have run tragically amok. After 18 months, five drafts, one workshop and close collaboration with director Elric Hooper, the play, when it finally opened at Christchurch's Court Theatre in October, was well-crafted and a knockout. Weaving effectively in and out of naturalism, "Daughters" successfully employs fictitious good Catholic housekeeper Mrs O'Malley (Yvonne Martin) to moralise throughout the whole nasty affair. Though almost everyone in the Court Theatre would have known the story of the English academic's and the fishmonger's daughters, who briefly shocked the world, "Daughters" always gripped audience attention. There have been objections to the play, and some contemporaries of the girls still want to keep the memories buried. One, reported Hooper, wanted it canned because it would offend people at Girls High, where the pair met. To the Kate Sheppard Memorial organisers, on the other hand, the play about "two gifted adolescent girls" was a timely opportunity for a fundraising evening--supper courtesy of St Martin's Parish Presbyterian Women. Forster's play and the city that spawned it have been in a weird embrace. But "DofH" is a good drama about hot topics, and it is destined for independent life in the big wide world.
