Lacrima currently playing at the Heath Ledger Theatre as a part of Perth Festival is a work following three separate teams working on different parts that will make up the dress and veil of the upcoming wedding of a fictional English princess.
Jumping between teams in Paris, Alencon (a smaller city in France), and Mumbai. Lacrima draws out the intensity of emotions in a high stakes and dramatic unfolding of 8 months of effort. A large ensemble cast switches between their roles in each team, with each location focusing on a different perspective of how dedication to work can destroy relationships and people. The use of live camerawork projected back out to us almost made the whole show feel like a pseudo-documentary/british crime drama (in a good way).
The set is mostly the interior of a large fashion house, the Paris team wear lab coats, reminiscent of how the famous designer Martin Margiela has his whole design team wear lab coats to instil a collective identity, surrounded by hospital type privacy curtains, and washed in a cold fluorescent life fills you with a coldness. This bleeds into the feelings of these characters as Marion, played by Maud Le Grevellec, loses herself completely in her work, allowing her personal life to crumble beside it.
The cast are a mammoth to behold, the intense heights of emotion bleeding into the intense closeness of a blown up live projection of their faces gives us a rare onstage intimacy with their feelings.
The sheer effort from a technical standpoint is grounds enough for Lacrima to be a case study in how well stagecraft can bring out an incredibly well made story. A dramatic scale at points to honestly rival a Shakespearean tragedy.
Do not be turned off by the fact it is mostly in French and has a three hour run time. The stagecraft and use of video merges magnificently together to make sure we can understand exactly what is happening at all times, while still being able to sit with the engrossing emotions on display by the phenomenal cast.
Perth Festival always does a fantastic job of giving us tastings with what is happening around the world for new theatre and Lacrima cannot be missed talent on display.