Adelaide Fringe. Adelaide Youth Theatre (AYT). Star Theatre One. 28 Feb 2014
I should start by immediately declaring my interests in this show. I was a part of the cast in Matt Byrne Media’s SA premiere of ‘Spelling Bee’ in 2009, and it is one of my all-time favourites! To say I approached AYT’s version with both excitement and trepidation would be an understatement. This production, directed by Brendan Cooney, was fantastic!
AYT are a company that traditionally produce shows with kids, all under 18. Although ‘Spelling Bee’ is a show about kids, the subject matter and themes are not really the domain of child actors; consequently AYT have, for the first time, increased their age limit to 25 and captured a cast of young adults. They have also taken their first step into the less forgiving domain of adult theatre.
‘Spelling Bee’ takes a hilarious look at the American phenomenon of kid’s spelling competitions. Whilst the show does have a comedic structure (double-entendres and puns are rife!) the genius of the writing is in the wonderfully captured, quirky yet sensitive characters. We laugh because we love them, and in most cases the cast of this production have understood this and played to the strength of the writing. The comedy is automatic thereafter.
The standouts are Buddy Dawson, as Leaf Coneybear, Jamie Hornsby as William Barfée and Tahlia Fantone as Olive Ostrovsky. The rest of the cast includes Mark Stefanoff as Chip Tolentino, Georgia Broomhall as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere, Georgia Bolton as Marcy Park, Mel George as Rona Lisa Perretti, Tom Bubner as Vice Principal Panch and Seb Cooper as Mitch Mahoney.
Dawson’s characterisation is outstanding. Initially it came nervously close to being too much, but quickly settled. He executed great character skill transforming from Coneybear to Schwartz in an instant and his voice and energy was fantastic – an audience favourite.
Hornsby was perfectly cast as Barfée and had a wonderful grasp on his character arc. His Barfée was the perfect balance between disgustingly odd and sweetly endearing.
Fantone was the most captivating of all the characters and captured Ostrovsky’s loneliness and sadness wonderfully. Her beautiful, sweet voice soared in the ‘I Love You Song’, and she was note perfect throughout the show.
Stefanoff’s, Chip Telentino was beautifully sung. The characterisation was cute, but needed to be pulled back a little. Broomhall was a wonderful Schwartzandgrubenniere and kept a consistent lisp throughout; she also played her character arc very well. Bolton as Marcy Park was so grumpy, so often and so well one soon began to think she looked that miserable all the time! Her smile came shining through late in the show however, and it was evident that she understood her character well. Mel George had all the right moves as Rona Lisa Perretti and certainly looked the part, unfortunately some of the songs were out of her range though, and she was undone by the tricky vocal line of the ‘I Love You Song’, which is usually one of the highlights of the musical.
Tom Bubner was hilarious as Panch; he was witty and dry, and his tall, lanky frame and retro suit were perfect for the role. Cooper also looked perfect as his character Mitch Mahoney and had a great voice for the ‘Prayer of the Comfort Counselor’, the difficult scoring of the ‘I Love You Song’ was also too much, but Cooper showed great restraint despite this.
Lighting Design by Rodney Bates was perfect and helped to delineate the fantasy scenes and asides clearly. Choreography by Ali Walsh was simple, effective and communicated the story line and Musical Direction by Ben Stefanoff had the whole show humming along at the perfect pace.
The decision not to put an interval in the show could have been capatalised on had it been advertised, I certainly would have grabbed more than one drink to enjoy at the fantastic cabaret seating set up around the theatre.
This show always seems to cop low audience numbers, and Im never sure if it is a publicity issue, or if audiences just miss the fact that it is a musical comedy and not an actual “spelling bee”! If you haven’t planned to see it, I do highly recommend you check it out. The show only has two runs left, so get in quick!
Paul Rodda
When: 28 Feb to 1 Mar
Where: Start Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Matt Byrne Media. Maxim’s Wine Bar. 26 Feb 2014
Is it possible you have not seen and loved at least one Matt Byrne show? dateless.com is the latest in a conga line of Vaudevillian comedies written, produced by and starring Matt Byrne, specifically for the Fringe. Always thematic and never phlegmatic, I have been entertained in fringes past by Pricks (doctors and nurses), PIGS (cops), Chalkies (teachers), Bogans (bogans) - the list goes on. This one is very likely about you, and if not, you are probably looking forward to your 40th anniversary.
Following the formula, we are introduced to George Carpet (Byrne), Rhonda Backseat (Kim York), Kendra Catley (Sophie Lee Hamilton), and Jack Lovegun (Marc Clement) – all on the prowl. The first five minutes alone covers the kaleidoscope of drama, pitfalls, exhilaration and disappointments of online dating as each one announces their particular needs. It is here that one begins to feel the presence of Byrne’s evenhanded and sympathetic writing on the online dating regime. Yes, double entendre, puns and gags follows in quick succession, but the thoughtfulness of Byrne’s approach is behind it all.
Besides the aforementioned dateless foursome, the actors are called upon to perform a number of ancillary characters usually signified with canny voice work, and body and facial language that while highly recognisable are never stereotyped. They are all fetching and/or cute. Byrne wrote distinctively for a great number of characters brought to life with successful individuality.
Byrne’s pathetic divorcee after 29 years was spot on. York’s Rhonda was warm, vivacious and deserving - you just wanted to reach out and give her a hug. Hamilton’s Catley was sensuous, provocative and suitably feline, while Clement’s Lovegun was, what did he say? Alpha male, alfalfa male? Anyways, he sprouted a fetching penis puppet with whom he sang a melodious duet! Bravo! When the actors weren’t on stage, they sat on an upstaging mile-long sofa and looked like they were waiting for the dentist. A word: gone but not forgotten.
The crowd loved it and you will too. Oh, did I mention there is also an opportunity to actually meet somebody new?
David Grybowski
When: 27 Feb to 16 Mar
Where: Maxim’s Wine Bar
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Presented by Michael Allen Productions. The Big Slapple – 48 Lounge. 26 Feb 2014
When is a decision not a decision? When there is no choice, or, put another way, when there is really only one course of action which is inevitable.
Sheila Duncan’s ‘A Solitary Choice’ invites us into the private world of a young woman and mother whose life is very much on hold. Her vitality is being slowly eroded away by a self absorbed and inattentive husband, as if she were a sheep in a herded flock being prodded and manoeuvred into an inevitable future. Then she meets Carlos and is rapidly drawn into his vibrant reality and into an unlikely affair, and she falls pregnant to him. And so begins her torturous journey of identifying and weighing up options until she reasons that she is left with… a solitary choice.
Her decision making along the way is shaped by a series of events: her cat giving birth to a litter of kittens, and later being savaged by the neighbour’s dog; her young son wanting to keep the kittens; a work client wanting to make seemingly unwise life changing financial decisions. On one level, Duncan’s use of these simple every-day events seems a little forced but their use is in fact quite clever: they serve to force the woman to accept, and celebrate, the fact that she has choice, and that she must exercise choice rather than becoming a docile and passive victim – some directionless flotsam on the ocean, or a sheep in a flock.
The writing is a rich blend of whimsy and humour, and is contrasted with the occasional moment of deep and touching pathos. Some of the humour has a certain predictability and prosaicness about it that particularly appealed to the women in the audience, and is used frequently to keep the action rolling along at a vibrant pace.
The play is an extended soliloquy, and Tamara Lee who was alone onstage for nearly an hour was impressive in the role of the woman. She has excellent diction and was clearly heard through the very large venue. Rather than making her too ‘busy’ on stage, Director Michael Allen preferred to let the text do the work in the hands of a capable actor who knows stagecraft. Allen employed a simple but effective lighting plot and used some well-chosen musical tracks to underscore the action.
This is a gentle play, which I felt occasionally didn’t know whether it wanted to be a light comedy or an insightful drama. Maybe playing it in a more intimate venue might have made me feel differently. That aside, the audience was drawn to its feet in enthusiastic applause at the end.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: The Big Slapple – 48 Lounge
Continues at the Port Augusta Institute Theatre on the 14th of March
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Festival. State Theastre Scenic Workshop. 26 Feb 2014
Chekhov wrote and agonised over The Seagull in the 19th Century but steadily it has reverberated through the ensuing times and trends. As do Chekhov's characters.
It's a glorious classic and hard to undermine.
‘The Seagull’ is a play about the process and players of the play. It has a play in the play. It is about theatre writers and prima donnas. It is about age, love, caprice and fatalism. It is about class and kindness, age and reason.
For the Adelaide Festival 2014, Geordie Brookman has cast his predecessor as STC artistic director, Rosalba Clemente, in the starring role of Arkadina, the highly-strung ageing stage star who is both matriarch and monster.
For the logistics of the Festival and Adelaide's growing shortage of theatres, he has staged the production in the STC's Scenic Workshop - in the bowels of the Festival Centre. This space was used last Festival for Tolstoy's ‘Kreutzer Sonata’, most triumphantly saved at the eleventh hour when Renato Musolino stepped into the role vacated by Sydney actor Barry Otto. For audiences, it was a vertiginous experience in one steep rake of bleachers - but the production shone.
This space works less well for ‘The Seagull’.
Here the seating has been split into two high rakes either side of a long rectangle. One looks down on a simple wooden stage with raised platforms at each end. In effect, the players are working two audiences. The result is that one sees a lot of backs and profiles of actors and gets the feeling that there is a preferred side. Since the tiers of seats are tall, one also sees a lot of tops of head.
There is one other handicap from this structure. It is an acoustic wasteland. The direction of sound often seems lost, quality muffled and muted to the ears of those aloft. Some dialogue is hard to distinguish. Do those actresses have poor pitch or are their voices dulled by their surroundings?
Hence, much of the play is an uphill, or should one say, upwards, audience challenge.
But, even while weeping for a more compatible venue, the play survives.
There are some utterly golden moments.
The actors establish their characters. The moods prevail and so does the weather, with the offstage howl of an old-fashioned wind-machine and the actors taking "snow" from their pockets to toss over their heads. This dear old shtick adds sweet levity to the wickedness of a Russian rural storm.
The play has funny streaks to it and Brookman has elicited many. It also has cruelty - and timeless cameos of what we love to call "the human condition".
There's the patience of the end of life in old Sorin who is delivered with the usual impeccability of Paul Blackwell and the jaded care of poor farm-bound Polina. She's a small role in the play but one which is distinguished in the hands of Lizzy Falkland. Hers is the best voice to survive the conditions of the venue.
Matilda Bailey in her country girl stomping boots serves well as the lovelorn serving girl, Masha, capturing the sense of poignancy with a comic edge. And, Matthew Gregan, composer, musician and her hapless suitor Medvedenko, is stand-out. One loves him to the core of compassion. But not as much as Xavier Samuel who earns audience love adorned with aching pity in his embodiment of the aspiring writer, Konstantin, stuck in the country, ever seeking the approval of his volatile Moscow-based stage star mother. An incisive performance.
One of the great moments of the play is the mother-son clash wherein, after demeaning him with torrents of criticism, his mother tries to catch him and cradle away the abject misery she creates. From both Samuel and Clemente, as the mother, this is a vividly-delivered scene.
Clemente, in a glamor of rich plum and red costumes, her raven hair immense, gives Arkadina her all. At times some of this is lost to inaudibility. Similarly hampered is Lucy Fry as Nina, the vapid and ambitious young beauty who stirs the men and irks the women. In a series of lovely 1950s sunfrocks, designed by Ailsa Paterson, she is a poised and highly arresting stage presence.
Terence Crawford , Chris Pitman and Renato Musolino turn in their usual fine well-seasoned work bringing the classic sense of Chekhov family and community to life . And, even perched under the ceiling fans on the wrong side of the theatre, one shares that claustrophobic sense of their isolation and a fatalistic ennui.
Perhaps the most expressive of all this, the most perfectly captured spirit of Chekhov, is in the scene of silence, when a seagull has just flown over, "an angel" as it is seen, and they in their world just stop for a moment. In that pause, there is everything.
Samela Harris
When: 25 Fen to 16 Mar
Where: State Theastre Scenic Workshop – Festival Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Apriori Projects. Holden Street Theatres. 25 Feb 2014
Playwright Steven Berkoff is Britain’s living treasure in the art of the theatrical one finger salute. Drama critic Aleks Sierz described Berkoff's dramatic style in general, and this play in particular, thusly:
“The language is usually filthy, characters talk about unmentionable subjects, take their clothes off, have sex, humiliate each another, experience unpleasant emotions, become suddenly violent. At its best, this kind of theatre is so powerful, so visceral, that it forces audiences to react; either they feel like fleeing the building or they are suddenly convinced that it is the best thing they have ever seen and want all their friends to see it too. It is the kind of theatre that inspires us to use superlatives, whether in praise or condemnation."
There’s a good dose of politics and social commentary as well in this offering from 1981. Berkoff is appalled with the decadence and snobbery of the upper classes, and the inability of the lower class to see themselves as equals. The monologues are delivered in verse and the play works on many levels – from crude titillation to onion-like layers of meaning.
Katherine Shearer and Rowan McDonald play both couples. Decadence delves into the nation’s class division through the sordid two-timing of a curiously class-mixed marriage. The cheating couples never meet, but talk about the other incessantly.
It’s a tough acting gig with little conversation, heaps of physical work and razor sharp characterisations required to keep up the interest. Shearer excels in both her class roles utilising sexuality and an amazing array of facial expressions. McDonald often let the plum in his mouth get in the way of good diction and a tie would have been appropriate given Shearer’s shimmering diamonds and low-cut frock. It was McDonald that created the most vivid word pictures for me: the description of casual homosexuality at a toff boys’ school, and the over-indulgent supper post-opera. The unstructured script leaves open the complaint of it being too long.
A good sampling of Berkoff admirably performed.
David Grybowski
When: 25 Feb to 2 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres – The Studio
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au