State Theatre Company and Adina Apartment Hotels. Space Theatre. 10 Nov 2015
This is a rollicking, fun and whacky end to State's 2016 season. Cast your mind back to your last attendance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the amateur troupe of actors chosen to perform at the wedding. Puck referred to them as "the rude mechanicals" and Australian playwrights Keith Robinson and Tony Taylor renamed them The Popular Mechanicals in jovial reference to the now largely forgotten journal for nerds, Popular Mechanics.
The show was born in the halcyon days of Sydney theatre when Nimrod Theatre was morphing into the Belvoir Street Theatre. The captains of industry then were the dynamic duo of director Neil Armfield and our beloved Geoffrey Rush. Rush directed the premiere in 1987 and put his indelible stamps of physical comedy and theatrical extravagance onto it. No bottom joke is too base, no fart too windy, no rubber chicken too horny to be in this show. Director Sarah Giles, her cast and creative team have resurrected the theatrical magic of The Popular Mechanicals with such success that the opening night audience was roaring with laughter for nearly the entire performance. Over the top is the right praise.
We follow the Mechanicals as they prepare their one-night performance for the newlyweds. Rory Walker as the anxious director doles out the parts to the odd-named actors - Bottom, Flute, Snug, Snout and Starveling. The actors then busy themselves at their day-job trades preparing costumes and props with an impromptu concert thrown in. As in the "Dream," there is a hitch when Bottom is turned into an ass, but actor Charles Mayer does hilarious double duty when Bottom is replaced by the cask-swilling professional actor, Mowldie. There ensues a delicious tongue-in-cheek comparison of the amateur and the professional - a never-ending discussion in the real world. All the fun was in the preparation and the actual performance by the Mechanicals was nearly anti-climactic. Persons involved with theatre will enjoy the in jokes.
What an exceptional cast of clowns Sarah Giles has crammed into this wooden O. Everyone has to multi-task in singing, sound effects, instruments, slapstick, and pathos. Attention must flit from one to the other as the stage is a cavalcade of Shakespearean gags and business. Tim Overton, Lori Bell, Julie Forsyth and Amber McMahon and the aforementioned thespians - bravo!
All's well that's lit well by Mark Pennington and Jonathan Oxlade's panoply of trap doors, colours, and props kept the eyes very busy. David Heinrich contributed the aural magic and the furniture was left unbumped thanks to Gabrielle Nankivell's choreography.
Don't go without this Christmas!
David Grybowski
When: 6 to 28 Nov
Where: Space Theatre, Festival Centre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Photography by Shane Reid
The Hills Musical Company. The Stirling Theatre. 6 Nov 2015
Stephen Sondheim’s Company was the first concept musical. Its construction deemphasises plot in favour of metaphors that communicate a single notion or ideology. In Company, vignettes are employed as a device to integrate the central theatrical themes of ambivalence, desperation, seduction, and tepidity of relationships.
In the show, Robert, an unlikely hero played by Josh Barkley, is central to the psychological drama. Robert moves through the vignettes – which are structured like snapshots from his memory – and attempts to learn from the other characters about the virtues of marriage, love, and relationships. Sondheim’s score builds and maintains an underlying tension which assists with forward momentum whilst simultaneously trapping Robert right up until the final moment.
The ensemble cast under the direction of Fiona DeLaine are all relatively strong, though there are some standouts amongst them. Kate Anolak and Jamie Richards as Sarah and Harry are hilarious and have developed a chemistry one would expect from long time partners. Danii Zappia delivers some of the strongest acting in the show, particularly when her character Jenny is high on more than the ‘spice of life’, and Lauren Potter’s Southern accent is unshakeable.
Stephanie Rossi is coquettish and free-spirited as Marta and sings beautifully, Jessica Rossiter is perfectly manic as Amy, and Kerry Straight plays up April’s stupidity with charm and charisma. The remaining cast give solid performances throughout; ensemble numbers are sung very well.
Josh Barkley takes the central role of Robert and is perhaps a little out of his depth in the challenging part. Despite singing beautifully he needs to be stretched emotionally a lot further. Many of the production’s pivotal moments are built on Robert’s emotional instability. There is a lot of room here for Barkley to grow as an actor.
The set is designed by Jamie Richards and has aided DeLaine in placing the action with purpose where there often is none. On stage the overall production works, but would perhaps benefit from a lift in excitement and energy from the whole cast. Sondheim’s music sounds wonderful, and musical director Mark DeLaine should be congratulated for wrangling the complicated score.
Together the DeLaine’s, their production team, and the cast have put up a nice piece of work that is most definitely worthy of your attention, so head for The Hills and check it out.
Paul Rodda
When: 6 to 21 Nov
Where: The Stirling Community Theatre
Bookings: hillsmusical.org.au
Photography by Mark Anolak
Torque Show with Michelle Ryan. 28 Oct 2015
Shiny bright and confident, sitting cross legged, a glass of white wine on a small round table beside her, dancer Michelle Ryan greets and chats to audience members as they take their seats.
Adrienne Chisholm’s traverse set ensures Ryan can turn left, then right as she waves and smiles while engaging in pleasantries. It’s as if she is in a bar, the audience being passers-by.
When all the chatter has died down, the lights dimmed, Ryan regales us with a tale describing the strange sensation of biting on a series of beer nuts, feeling as if each tooth in her mouth was falling out. She spies this man across the room she wants to meet. They wave. She’s sure she’s toothless. Nonetheless with a big smile, she rises herself to greet him as he approaches. She is unsteady.
She has multiple sclerosis.
So begins an evening in which Torque Show’s production aptly named Intimacy draws its audience into the evolving relationship between the man, dancer Vincent Crowley, and Ryan. Even more so, the relationship Ryan has within herself with her body; its expressive capacities as she has developed and moulded them anew.
Intimacy’s blend of song, provided by Lavender Vs Rose (Emma Bathgate, guitarist Simon Eszeky), and company devised text makes for an evening of fabulist story telling, magic and thought provoking audience interaction. It’s funny, it’s difficult, it’s borderline tragic. Yet always, it’s hitting your heart and pushing your mind.
The line between assisting someone physically in need, yet that person also being powerfully expressive in body, is extremely thin.
Torque Show’s Ingrid Weisfelt, who danced with Ryan during Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre era, has clearly worked with Ryan to create choreography that includes, without apology, the weakness M.S. inflicts; transforming it in movement to release its capacity for expressive, emotive power.
Crowley and Ryan’s duet across the floor is an extraordinary explosion of sheer beauty in which Crowley’s pure strength enhances Ryan’s deft feather light touches of clear technique, drenched in feeling. All this summoned from a few, trembling unsteady moments carefully expressed with remarkable ‘against the grain’ control.
There is much to ponder in this work. Rightly, as Weisfelt states in her production notes, not so much about disability, but the ability to connect as much in action as heart.
Intimacy won the 2015 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance.
David O’Brien
When: 28 to 31 Oct
Where: The Space
Bookings: bass.net.au
Marie Clark Musical Theatre. The Goodwood Institute. 24 Oct 2015
Marie Clark Musical Theatre have backed up their award winning run with a damn good production, and I heartily suggest you see it. Fame is not a new musical - rather a tried and tested formula for a fun night of theatre – and director Chris Daniels has injected plenty of fun into this, his debut production.
On audition day at New York City’s High School of Performing Arts, a mixed group of students gather, praying they will “make P.A”. It is our first introduction to the cast, and one that sets each character up for the journey they are about to travel. In this opening, there are technical issues with lighting and sound. It doesn’t pick up for a couple of songs, but the sound levels are corrected. The odd missed lighting cue persists throughout the show, however.
The young hopefuls are all there with one thing on their mind – to make it big in the world of performance. Fame-obsessed Carmen Diaz is performed with self-assuredness by Jasmine Garcia. Diaz is arrogant and overconfident and, relying on no one, she pushes away burgeoning love with violin virtuoso Schlomo Metzenbaum, played with poignancy by Mark Stefanoff. Stefanoff is affecting as Metzenbaum and oh-so sharp in the dance numbers.
Conversely Serena Katz, played by Lucy Carey, is absolutely enamoured with her new found love Nick Piazza; Carey sings sweetly and really tackles Katz’ insecurities. Nick Piazza, embodied by Mitchell Smith, is focussed and driven to success in his chosen field. Smith has a wonderful voice and attacks the role with the perfect balance of strength and subtlety.
As if two couples were not enough, dancers Iris Kelly and Tyrone Jackson, played by Tayla Coad and Josh Angeles respectively, also find love in their first year at PA. Here are two young performers with very bright futures ahead of them. Coad is magnetic to watch and has a presence on stage such that one finds oneself looking at nothing but her. Similarly, when Angeles performs he is passionate and engaging; whether raging, lamenting or even singing in rap.
Mabel Washington is praying for a diet that works, and Georgia Broomhall brings just the right amount of schmaltz to the role. Fatefully the only male with sex on the brain is also the only uncoupled character amongst the leads. Joe Vegas (as in Las Vegas, baby!) is played with a kitschy, stereotypical, Mexican-cum-somewhere in the US accent, that is perfectly appealing. Aled Proeve’s Vegas is cocky yet vulnerable, awkward yet satisfying.
Anna Ruediger and Luke Mitchell round out the ensemble cast as Grace ‘Lambchops’ Lamb and Goodman ‘Goody’ King. Ruediger has some cut through moments in the big numbers that really show her singing chops (pun intended), and Goody gets the laughs when he tries it on with Metzenbaum as a lover’s joke.
The cast of characters is rounded out nicely by the teachers in Lisa Simonetti (Ms Sherman), Ashleigh Tarling (Miss Bell), Ben Todd (Mr Myers) and Brian Godfrey (Mr Scheinkopf). Simonetti stamps her authority all over Sherman, and eats up her solo These Are My Children.
The choreography by Ali Walsh and Vanessa Redmond is some of the best I’ve seen for a while. It is vibrant and energetic - as dancing should be - but also manages to really effectively communicate the emotions in each scene beyond the characters performances.
The set has been designed by director Chris Daniels and incorporates some very effective projections. I could take or leave those bricks though.
For first time director, Chris Daniels this is an impressive debut and one that he will no doubt take a few lessons from for the future. There is opportunity to grow in both the technical production and in the finer details in acting and continuity, but these are mere niggles.
Don’t miss this one.
Paul Rodda
When: 23 to 31 Oct
Where: The Goodwood Institute
Bookings: trybooking.com
Belvoir/State Theatre SA. Dunstan Playhouse. 20 Oct 2015
It's a crime story. It's about the squalid and rapacious world of drug smugglers in Sydney. It's about Sydney real estate and its social divide. And, it's about Coca-Cola, lots of evil addictive Coca-Cola as well as the coke that is not cola.
The audience reactions on Mortido's opening night were mixed. Some were struggling to work out the Mexican folklore and others, the relevance of the sadomasochistic homosexuality. Some said they were puzzled about the real estate. There was plenty of interesting grist to take home and think on.
There is German dialogue in the play, but more dominantly, there is Spanish spoken, particularly by the Bolivian gigolo, played with savage sensuality by David Valencia. There are some oblique strands of thought such as the idea of mole sauce made from human tears.
Angela Betizen's new play is big in themes, symbolism, cultural references and violence both contained and actual. It is set upon a vast open plan of stage with one wall of mirrored tiles off which lights reflect mercilessly into the eyes of the prompt-side audience.
There's a perspex wall on which the child draws, beautifully, the roosters which plague his dreams. The child should be a likeable character, but he, exquisitely performed by young Calin Diamond, is pitiable. There are no likeable characters in this play. They are strictly underbelly.
There is, however, some wonderful acting in this production directed by Leticia Caceres. The star, Colin Friels, is a joy to watch. Perhaps less at home as in glib Ockerdom, he comes alive and brings the show to life the moment he steps out as the German-Bolivian cocaine baron, Heinrich Barbie. It is a brilliant and chilling transformation. Again, in the character of the Serbian stonecutter, Bratislav, Friels delivers a superb capsule of character and culture. No matter which character he plays, from Aussie copper to German villain, the Friels body work is sublime. Simply put, he has the most exceptional physical grace, even in depictions of violence.
Renato Musolino is compelling as the vile, bragging, coke-snorting Sydney drug king. He also is unforgettably poignant as the bare-arsed Kings Cross psych patient. Louisa Mignone could be two different actresses, so effectively does she define the disparate characters of Scarlett and Sybille. Tom Conroy plays the focal character of Jimmy, the family failure, the dupe, the mule, the drug king's servant brother-in-law. Most credibly, he creates one of the stage's great losers and, as written by Betzien, a loser who deserves to be a loser.
The script is still a bit overwritten with a tendency to reiterate to get the message through. But, seriously, the audience gets the Pert shampoo and conditioner joke straight off and it loses something being twice explained. Similarly, when the unexpected fourth box is delivered, there are only so many times we need to be reminded that the fourth box is not expected. And so forth. Less is more.
While the lighting offends, the soundscape lifts, carries, and complements the action on the stage magnificently. Composed by The Sweats with Nate Edmondson as sound designer, it ranges from soft, strange rustling and rattling through rumbles and roars, thumps and thunders and wondrous percussive intensities.
Mortido is a brave new work and an ambitious production which is what theatre is meant to be. Not all the audience stayed to the end on opening night but most certainly, all the audience took home interesting quandaries and memories of shining performances.
Samela Harris
When: 20 to 31 Oct
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: bass.net.au
Photography by Shane Reid
