Review: Station to Station at Herald Theatre

Michael Galvin, Antonia Prebble (middle) and Ilona Rodgers.

Michael Galvin (Shortland Street's Dr Warner) has written himself a doozy of a role in his new play: Simon, his Auckland evangelist, is willing to lie, entrap and possibly commit terrorist acts to hasten the Second Coming of Christ; the End apparently justifies being mean.

The events Simon triggers are far-fetched and involve plot holes so big you could throw a bomb through them - but then, like any good melodrama writer, Galvin is far more interested in plot twists than logic. It's the sudden changes of mood and the cat-and-mouse game played both with characters and audience that give Station to Station its thriller-like verve.

As befits a play cut into 12 divisions (named for Stations of the Cross), single scenes stand alone, and director Cameron Rhodes creates some memorable, theatrically powerful moments. The Sky Tower exchanges between the Soldier ashamed of his facial scar (Mark Ruka) and the "is-she-a-honey-trap?" Veronica (a simpering Antonia Prebble) are riveting; the reverse Pieta tableau later on is a clever touch. Elena Doyle's faux-painting projections and snippets of Geoff Maddock's epic music increase the intensity.

All four actors are strong; Galvin, cross pendant nearly choking his neck, does a good job of playing more smarm than charm. But the reasons for Simon's conviction in the bloodthirsty myth of the Rapture are not the focus of the play - the careerist evangelist remains a cipher, and Station to Station doesn't challenge entertainment's current ban on sympathetic Christian characters.

However, the matrix of religion, sexual subversion and violence is presented with skill, and it is the Soldier who provides the play's psychological core, preventing it from becoming mere cartoon. His harrowing tales of conflict are as much about what he did - and what he enjoyed doing - as what was done to him. He's ethically compromised; intelligent, vulnerable, violent and concerned for the welfare of his sick mother (a down-to-earth Ilona Rodgers) - and this satisfying complexity is excellently articulated by Ruka. He keeps us guessing, as does the play itself. It's also reasonably priced. Amen to that.