Reviews

Rites of Privacy

Secrets can be deadly, according to actor/playwright David
Rhodes. During this intense and bold one-man show he confronts us with a
motley cast of characters, whom he portrays one by one, transforming himself on
stage with chameleon-like ease, using different outfits, accents and make-up to
assume five different roles; characters with nothing in common, yet united by
the heavy burdens of their pasts. The interim sections are peppered with
anecdotes from Rhodes’ childhood; here he plays himself, chatting as he changes,
finally revealing a secret of his own that he has learnt to share. It’s not as
self-indulgent as it sounds.

The stark set is an actor’s dressing room, with a rail of
clothes and a dressing table. From the minute he strips down to his flesh
tights, you see him as the blank canvas upon which he will paint these
characters, taking us on a tour of dysfunctional America. We meet a
past-her-prime Southern pageant queen, an elderly refugee who escaped from Nazi
Germany, a gay Belgian drug pusher, a lumberjack Jew in New Hampshire and a
suburban medic in a right muddle. Who’d have thought it possible during 90
minutes in Hampstead?

Their stories are uniformly bleak, as are his anecdotes. Director Charles Loffredo tries to vary the pace by sprinkling in a bit of music and
some dance routines, which are awkward and make for uncomfortable viewing.
These characters are supposedly strangled by their secrets, and the
slow-burning agony of truths kept hidden for years; it doesn’t add or explain
anything to have a woman who is about to explain the grisly details of a
self-administered abortion prancing around to the Eurythmics. Yet during their
monologues, the characterisation is excellent, and the power of this play is
born of the fact that this entire work is conceived, performed and held
together by Rhodes himself.

His ability as a performer is never in doubt. But if these characters
were played by different actors, the play would lose its emotional punch; Rites
of Privacy
’s fairly rudimentary warning about the dangers of keeping
secrets is totally overshadowed by Rhodes’ extraordinary versatility as an
actor. The characters feel like a random assortment of snapshots of a pack of
strangers; they are meticulously drawn, but ultimately transient. What will
stay with me is Rhodes’ own tale; I wish he had shared more.

– Christina
Bracewell