Presented by Holden Street Theatres Edinburgh Fringe Awards in association with Redback Productions and Gilded Balloon. Adelaide Fringe. 15 Feb 2017
Henry Naylor’s Echoes was one of the five-star hits of last year’s Fringe and this year’s Angel is going the same way. Naylor is emerging as one of the great playwrights of our times, not only handling very difficult political and gender issues but doing so with a very lyrical and potent pen.
Angel by Henry Naylor is a war saga largely set in Syria and telling of Rehana, a bright farm girl who is intent on a legal career when her life and aspirations are upturned by the siege on her home town of Kobane. It is the third in Naylor’s trilogy “Arabian Nightmare”.
Rehana is a character based on truth, on a law student who trained as a sniper and became something of a legend after killing about 100 members of ISIS. She was reported to have been caught and beheaded by ISIS - twice.
Naylor introduces her as a girl whose farmer father deters local Islamic lads from abusing her by showing his strength in an extraordinary act of self-harm. He subsequently keeps her from school and trains her, against her wishes, as a marksman. Then her mother takes her on a refugee flight to Turkey whence she turns tail to rescue her father who remains in embattled Kobane, hopelessly defending the family farm. It is a gutsy and frightening trip, a teen girl at the mercy of factions of fierce warring Muslim men. She is forced to desperate ends, each experience bringing a pacifist girl closer to the ruthless warrior woman she is destined to become among the amazing Kurdish women’s army whose triumphal power lies in the Islamic belief that death at the hands of a woman denies a man all the carnal luxuries of heaven.
Angel is directed by Michael Cabot on a smoky stage where lighting dark and shrill evokes the many scenes of the narrative. It is a solo show but actress Avital Lvova peoples the stage by leaping in and out of the characters Rehana the Angel encounters on her desperate mission: her stoic father, her sad mother, the Kurdish fighter who smuggles her disguised as his wife, the ISIS soldiers who imprison her, and the leader of the women’s army.
It is a dynamic, action-packed narrative delivered in a powerful performance.
Lvova is a wonder to behold. She has an exceptional ability to connect with the audience, a magical outreach which is quite compelling.
The production thus forces audiences to dip their consciousnesses into the bloody sands of the Syrian sorrows and to taste for themselves just a little of why the people are fleeing their homeland.
It is indeed the Arabian nightmare.
It also is a vivid, brilliant and important piece of theatre, one which brings young audience members to their feet to whoop and scream in approbation while the older ones are still sitting in silent respect before erupting into a thunder of applause.
Samela Harris
When: 15 Feb to 19 Mar
Where: The Studio, Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Holden Street Theatres’ Edinburgh Fringe Award in association with Prime Cut Productions. Adelaide Fringe. 15 Feb 2017
She’s only 17 and not the smartest kid in the class. Her world is a swirl of online games, hip hop music, social media, avatars and handles. Within it all, she is looking for her identity and worrying about her sexual orientation. She goes by the androgynous name of Kaz and identifies as a “boi” or masculine girl.
Amy McAllister is the performer of this one-hander by Belfast playwright Stacey Gregg. She is lean and fit and fast. She dances like a coiled spring. She prowls the circular carpet which is the stage of her theatre-in-the-round. Sometimes she sits in the audience and expounds.
And then she answers the electronic summons of Skype whence the girl to whom she’s been chatting online is seeking the next step in getting to know her. For Kaz, this is the big time of love and plans are realised to meet in real life. Kaz is as sexually naive as she is ingenuous in most other ways. But this encounter with Jewel is cause for immense joy and celebration. McAllister is utterly infectious in her expressions of this fulfilment. It is simply beautiful to share. And even when Jewel drops her, Kaz’s happiness survives because now she is not an unloved no one, she has an “ex” and to have an “ex” you have had a love. In all this positivity and joy, one knows that something dark must be coming but its nature really takes one quite by surprise. It is a huge and terrible human predicament, one which once may have been very obscure indeed but in today’s world of diverse gender orientations, runs close to the moral and ethical bone.
McAllister gives an intense, high-energy performance. She is compelling and so is the play. Not surprising it has been winning awards all over the place.
It is a fine piece of theatre which touches the nerve of today’s gender issues.
Samela Harris
When: 15 Feb to 19 Mar
Where: The Studio, Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Hammond Fleet Productions with Holden Street Theatres. Adelaide Fringe. 15 Feb 2017
Not since The Boys Own Macbeth has there been such a pithy trespass upon Shakespeare’s telling of the timeless tragedy of political ambition.
Today’s culprit is comedian Greg Fleet who calls his quasi Shakespearean confection a “mash-up”. He has contrived a contemporary political plot line which criss-crosses with that of the true Shakespearean Macbeth. The dialogue veers from expletive-laden Ocker vernacular to the Bard’s iambic pentameter. It's not hard to work out which part of the script came from Fleet’s pen. Somehow it all works rather well and Fleet emerges as a passable Shakespearean actor, to boot.
His Macbeth is a crass Perth Liberal pollie called Paul Macbeth who is out to unseat the premier of Western Australia. The power behind the throne is his manipulative failed lawyer wife, Lainie Macbeth. She is embodied by Nicola Bartlett, a skilled actress clearly at home with the classics.
The play is largely set in their snazzy bedroom wherein Lainie uses her feminine powers to urge Macbeth’s ambitions forth. It is a multimedia production. Other characters appear in projected clips. He communicates with Banquo on Skype. Then Banquo’s ghost materialises thus, above the marital bed. There are other apparitions - witches and voters and vox popsters. Thus is the play a two-hander with a considerable onscreen cast which includes co-producer Roz Hammond along with Luke Hewitt, Matt Dyktinski, Kate Keady and others.
It’s an effective contrivance, complementary to the anachronisms of the script “mashup”.
The Macbeths plot the downfall of their competition using media as the lethal tool. And down goes Duncan with compromising photos released to the press.
The nearer they come to their awful goals, the more their world crumbles. Drunk with power, they go on cocaine binges, one of which gives opening to the best gag in the play for, indeed, the comedian has not resisted the temptation to subtly pepper the production with good gags.
Bottom line is that while Signifying Nothing retains its intensity as Shakespearean tragedy it makes the point that politics then and now is an ugly game.
Fleet has his ways to underscore this in his performance - a singularly craven smile, a gloriously sickly false laugh…
The production not only works, it is absolutely wonderful.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Samela Harris
When: 15 Feb to 19 Mar
Where: The Studio, Holden Street Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Zest Theatre Group. Victor Harbor Town Hall. 27 Jan 2017
The political future of the world might look grim and unpredictable but the musical theatre future of South Australia looks rather rosy - if you have seen the latest offering by the Zest group at Victor Harbor.
Here, under the sage influence and legendary Bunyips spirit of director/producer Terry Mountstephen, a cast of bright South Coast talent has rallied, worked and shone like the Southern Cross.
West Side Story has never been an easy show. It has a demanding musical score and some decidedly challenging dance routines. It is a big show. It needs a large cast. It needs strong vocalists. And, it needs perceptive dramatic skills since it is the tale of Romeo and Juliet retold and it taps the depths of human vulnerability.
All of this is a tall ask of a regional group so it is really rather thrilling at the end of the night to leave the beachside community town hall going “wow”.
It is not only that some terrific young talent has gathered for this production but that the old school stage disciplines of Mountstephen and her director daughter Peta Bowey along with choreographer Sally Grooby, have honed and moulded them into a thoroughly presentable production. Even the old Victor Harbor Town Hall scrubs up nicely with an evocative New York brick-background and fire escapes set plus micro scenes on privacy reveal at either side of the stage, this thanks to Graeme, yet another behind-the-scenes Mountstephen.
Out the front, carrying the weight of audience response, is a pack of young people more or less the age groups of the warring gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. They are actors of all physical types and yet, put through the ropes of the show’s choreography, they are all quite respectable dancers and fighters, some of them outstanding. The boys are particularly impressive as a chorus strength and their performance of Office Krupke quite rightly brings the house down. It’s worth the price of the ticket for this scene alone.
On opening night, the first scenes of the show were a little tense and stiff with nerves. The dancing was splendid but seemed, of all things, over-rehearsed.
But, as the action developed and the cast relaxed, the spirit of spontaneity eased in and, by the second Act, the cast was a well-oiled machine, bringing its audience to the misty eye and big swallow of the tragic denouement as sweet Tony lies dying in the arms of his loving Maria.
Somewhere, America, One Hand One Heart, Tonight, I Feel Pretty all are rewardingly performed.
Scott Murton has an easy musicals voice and manner in the role of Tony while Ashley Penny has a strong, more operatic, soprano quality as Maria. Together, they are really touching, albeit not perfect in harmonies.
Around them are some interesting young performers, Isobel Pitt particularly as a strong acting and singing talent. In the dancing department, there is a corps of fabulous dancers among them, one Jack Doherty who also plays Action. It is a pleasure to see this young man move. He has “it”. One looks forward to seeing where his talent takes him.
He is surrounded by engaging young performers, notably Byron Godwin-Knott along with Dylan Rufus, Tom Richardson, Jo Kelly plus Harrison Golledge, Brittany Allen, James Goldsmith, Ebony Threadgold, and Gracie-Jo Seckold. Then there is Emily McEvoy, Jemmah Sims, Shannen Beckett…and the surrounding cast, ensemble and specialist dancers, too many to mention.
This is amateur theatre right out of town but like its Encounter Bay geography, that important nursery of young ocean fish life; it is a significant theatrical birthplace for upcoming stage talent.
This is a terrific high-energy batch and it is a beaut version of a classic Bernstein and Sondheim Broadway hit show. With thanks to Jerome Robbins and Arthur Laurens.
Samela Harris
When: 27 Jan to 5 Feb
Where: Victor Harbor Town Hall
Bookings: Swan’s Pharmacy, Victor Harbor. Phone 08 85522021
The Look, The Legend, The Musical. The Production Company and Adelaide Festival Centre. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 31 Dec 2016
Was it the bopping hits of yesteryear or the dazzling performances of the cast which brought audience members to their feet at the opening of Dusty?
A bit of both.
It was a nostalgia springboard into 2017 - something old as new again.
The Production Company’s look at Dusty The Look, The Legend, The Musical is a wickedly extravagant portrayal. It is a blockbuster co-production with the Adelaide Festival Centre of a very successful bio musical created by John-Micahel Howson, David Mitchell and Melvyn Morrow. It revives all the corn and bling of the 60s and then some. The wigs! The wigs! The frocks! The frocks!
Dusty Springfield’s story is not one of the great happy sagas of showbiz. Not that there are many of those.
It stands as an interesting piece of pop star history. While Dusty was no rarity as a lesbian in the upper echelons of showbiz, she was of an era when such were kept in the whispering shadows and double lives were lived. Added to the ‘sturm und drang’ of life at the top and the vicissitudes of the music industry, not to mention the ever-presence of drugs and alcohol, Dusty existed within a deepening psychological minefield from which, remarkably, this star eventually rose like a Phoenix, several times.
This is delivered as a theatrical emotional rollercoaster from hope and rebellion through conflict and triumph to rebirth and, eventually, death.
The Production Company’s fabulous orchestra under the direction of Michael Tyack, is elevated very elegantly on a high dais above the action onstage. This is apt for the theme of the show and much more fun than having the musos buried in an orchestra pit.
The staging generally is skilfully unfussy allowing the large cast to dress the stage with dance and costumes and the lighting bods to bring on the moods. The show’s choreography by Michael Ralph is just divine. It draws on a zillion heavenly retro moves and the dancers give their able all. As they say in the classics, you gotta love it.
The songs belt out and the beats throb forth - I Only Want to be With You, Little By Little, Silver Threads and Golden Needles, Dancing in the Street, Wishin’ and Hopin’, I Just Don’t Know What to do with Myself, Son of a Preacher Man, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me…
In the world of juke box musicals, this is a good one covering pop music decades and crossing from the UK to the US and back again.
Of course, to many it is not the greatest music in the world and this sort of pop history is not for everyone. But this revisiting of what was, at the time, a thrilling world in which pop ruled the air waves, is providing a rare chance for boomer parents to give their young a window into how it was.
Of course, it is mainly millennials who are doing the work to deliver it all.
The cast, directed by Jason Langley, is largely young and fresh and fit and strong - and talented.
Amy Lehpamer is all big lungs and strong notes as Dusty. Talk about belting out songs. One after another. Dusty had a big voice. It is a strenuous and impressive performance in which Lehpamer also reaches into the heart of Dusty and brings the audience a sense of a real wonderful, flawed person.
Adelaide’s Baylie Carson plays Mary O’Brien, the young Dusty, and, despite having to perform costumed in a drab school uniform, her singing brings the house down. She’s a huge hit with the home crowd.
So is Paul Blackwell, perhaps the most beloved Adelaide actor of our time. He plays three roles, all with his usual charm, skill and whimsy. Piece de resistance is the great night club scene which represents Dusty’s latter-day rise to the superstar status of gay icon. The house comes down again.
Then, of course, there is one of Australia's musical superstars, Todd McKenney playing a supporting role to give added class and pizazz to the show. He’s waspish and sweet as Dusty’s hairdresser and loyal friend. He gets to wear a fabulous wig or two, also. And it is ever and always a joy to watch him work on stage.
Chloe Zuel gives a sterling performance as the American singer Reno, Dusty’s great love. Oh, how she makes one feel her dilemmas.
Sheridan Anderson and Emma Hawthorne are vivacious support as Mary’s girl group. Then there is Virginia Gay, strong as stalwart Peg, along with Chidi Mbwkwe and Ruvarashe Ngwenya as The Nevadas, Jackie Rees as Kay O’Brien, Brenton Wilson, Nicole Melloy… among the large and notable cast.
Dusty is not high art. It has no pretences. It is a good-time nostalgia show.
It hits that mark with a flourish - and everyone goes home happy and humming.
Samela Harris
When: 31 Dec to 22 Jan
Where: Adelaide Festival Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au