Strange things happen when an actor plays another, more famous actor. The outcome can be a bewildering sack of tics and mannerisms, or it can be mesmerising, like an actual communion with the dead. In Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of the UK playwright Ryan Calais Cameron’s taut three-hander Retrograde, the improbable task of bringing the screen legend Sidney Poitier to life falls to a newcomer, Donné Ngabo. The result is transfixing; a breakout performance to rival Poitier’s own in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle.
It’s there in the walk, initially. The play keeps its powder dry by delaying Poitier’s entrance considerably and, when we do finally see him, he’s silently walking to a Manhattan meeting in an impeccable chestnut suit. That meeting – in the wake of Blackboard Jungle’s success – is with Mr Parks (Alan Dale), an NBC lawyer who has drafted the contract Poitier has come to sign with the network, his big break. Joining them is a screenwriter and industry bruiser, Bobby (Josh McConville), Poitier’s friend and champion. Surely, the meeting will be a cinch, a mere formality.
