Hayley Carmichael and Paul Hunter in The Fahrenheit Twins
cast list
Hayley Carmichael, Paul Hunter
directed by
Matthew Dunster
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The Fahrenheit Twins, adapted by Matthew Dunster and Told by an Idiot from Michel Faber’s eponymous short story, explores the growing up of two children born to scientist parents in the Arctic.
To the performers, Hayley Carmichael and Paul Hunter, Faber’s piece had to be turned into a play, given the story’s dramatic possibilities.
Unfortunately, however, whilst visually the resulting production is rewarding, the ideas expressed on the page do not survive the transition to stage quite so well.
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The story sees two eminent German scientists go to live on a remote Arctic exploration station to study the native people. They become detached from other human beings, however, as they study the Inuits ‘from afar’, and have little contact with Germany beyond the retention of their cuckoo clock.
As the children grow up neither parent has much time for them, as the father becomes too engrossed with his studies (amongst other things) to show any interest. The mother, on the other hand, gets carried away with the idea that they are free-spirited children of the Arctic, which is what they consequently become. They become captivated by the idea of ritual, and even kill an Arctic fox each spring to ensure they never grow up. Their joyful existence ends abruptly, however, when their mother dies and the children take her body on a journey to allow the universe to decide how to dispose of it.
Unfortunately, the theme of shattered perfection isn’t all that interesting when presented on stage. As the children go on this journey, growing cold and hungry as mishaps arise, they learn that life isn’t the blissful entity they once thought it was. The argument, however, doesn’t go much beyond making this simple point, and though the unique context within which these children learn it is important, it still remains a fairly obvious and uninteresting observation.
Dramatically, the show fares better. Naomi Wilkinson’s intelligent and versatile set consists of a revolving stage covered in snow which, facing one way, sports a dramatic icy slope and, facing the other, forms the family’s dwelling. The first ten minutes are highly effective as we witness the parents flying to the Arctic and establishing their home by carving furniture and giving birth to their children. There is no spoken dialogue in this section, but the actions of Carmichael and Hunter, to the soundtrack of David Bowie’s Young Americans (also used to end Lars von Trier’s Dogville), tell us all we need to know.
Throughout, this splendid pair play the children, the parents, the dogs and Arctic foxes, by switching from one role to another with a flick of a hood. That the staging seldom strives for realism also contributes to the dramatic effect. The toothbrushes stand out far more by sporting bells rather than bristles because we can both and see and hear when they are being used.
Nevertheless, it is still only the first ten minutes that feature sufficiently strong drama to entirely preclude the need for a more sophisticated argument than this play has to offer.
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