State Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company. Space theatre. 25 Oct 2014
Thank goodness someone has written a play that shows the Chinese nationals to be the way they really are, or is it the way we think they are? Or demonstrates in no uncertain terms what they think of us - koala-like loafers lazily lounging on a treasure of resources lacking ideals - or is this the way white Australians think Chinese nationals think about us? Where sits the experience and the stereotype?
Kryptonite is a new Australian work co-produced by our state theatre and Sydney Theatre Company by accomplished playwright Sue Smith. While the world premiere took place in the harbour city last month, the work was directed by State's very own Geordie Brookman.
We follow the on-off relationship of Aussie surfie-uni bloke cum Green senator Dylan and Chinese student cum businesswoman Lian over twenty-five years. From the late '80s to today, the fulcrum moments - the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Beijing Olympics - provide temporal bookends for China's modern coming-of-age. The genius of the writing is that Dylan and Lian also represent their native lands, and their personal discourse gets geopolitical and progressively accusative and nasty. The love story is more a story of yearning at the foot of insurmountable cultural and character abutments.
Victoria Lamb's stage is designed with the modern idioms of bare and alienating, yet is fetchingly architectural (which means it's got style). I loved the disappearing ink on the rouched silk-like backdrop. Nicholas Rayment follows suit with harsh and focused lighting. Composer DJ Tr!p (no, not a typing error) hones the edge further, and sound designer Andrew Howard gives it an ethereal effect.
Sue Smith chose to chop up the chronology in a way re-popularised by Quentin Tarantino - another technique that separates modern theatre from its proscenium stage forbears. Sometimes confusing, I appreciated its value nearer the end.
Ursula Mills gives an excellent performance in the challenging role of Lian. Her Lian, likely a creation of all of herself, Brookman, Smith, and Smith's sister-in-law, certainly was an incredibly detailed and nuanced rendition of everything I see in being Chinese - for example, her hard working impoverished student, her early peasant-like behaviours, her power woman period, frank judgments, clear thinking, passion, love of country. Bravo! Tim Walker provided no less verisimilitude and his transition from a prankster to a senator seemed the real deal. Director Geordie Brookman made the years fly by, like the pages blowing off a calendar, with inventive blocking and creative scene changes, and not least, the performances he extracted from this great cast.
I was thrilled at the pace and the scope of this production, a real roller coaster ride called Australia's relationship with China, superbly executed and presented. A time capsule of the times.
David Grybowski
When: 22 Oct to 9 Nov
Where: The Space Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Photography by Lisa Tomasetti
Vitalstatistix. Waterside Workers Hall, Port Adelaide. 16 Oct 2014
I have always considered the Vitals to be vital in the creation of new theatrical work in Adelaide, and they do so presently via three programs: Incubator - a residency program for the creation of new performance work, Adhocracy - an annual amalgam of artists and audience, and Contemporary Communities - community-based projects partnering artists with non-artists culminating in a new work. The latter sounds similar to what the dear, late and great Geoff Crowhurst used to do through Junction Theatre.
Quiet Faith is a world premiere born of Vitalstatistix's artistic director Emma Webb's Incubator program. Writer, director and performer David Williams wanted to counterbalance the bombastic and shrill political elements of Christianity that hog the publicity, with a theatrical documentary (sometimes called verbatim theatre) recalling the piety and works springing from your suburban Sunday service.
The documentary aspect comes from Williams' personal experience growing up in a church family, and through his interviews with twenty Christians from various denominations and with diverse ages and occupations. With co-performer and collaborator, Ashton Malcolm, they mimic the intonations of the interviewees in expressing their testimony. Indeed, they sought permission of the interviewees to perform their very words. How great is that? Imagine being able to interview Willy Loman or Richard III in order to provide an authentic performance!
The result is a gentle and often wry reflection on your everyday church-goer, and Christian religion and social service provider. But the first thing that will impress you is Jonathan Oxlade's fetching circular maze set in the middle of the cavernous Waterside Workers Hall. The low walls of the maze, constructed of bleached plywood with a high level of craftsmanship, function as seats for the audience. Above is a halo of diffused lighting thoughtfully designed by Chris Petridis. Whispering voices and vespers penetrate the space via eight enormous trumpet-like speakers (sound design: Bob Scott). An exceptionally credentialed creative team has been applied to this project. The design was sculptural/architectural, take your pick.
Williams and Malcolm play the various roles of social workers, pew sitters and deacons. You are immediately captured by the devotion to service thus expressed, and will identify with the political views - from "What is Abbott doing?" to "Of course, if you belong to the church you voted Liberal." Williams and Malcolm sweep amongst the audience and look you in the eye with their monologues of verisimilitude. Indeed, the script is certainly most real, with all the halted sentences and changes in thought and expression that we do when we explain or converse. This worked extraordinarily well 90% of the time. They also sang devotional hymns, and people joined in for Amazing Grace and The Lord's Prayer. Hell, I grew up with 10:30 Sunday mass at Our Lady of Sorrows, so I knew what Williams was getting at.
I was especially moved with the last scene where a couple of ministers explain how they gave baptism to a stillborn - against doctrine - to provide the requested comfort this would give the parents. They posit the question: If we can't provide compassion and assuage grief at this time of need, what use are we or our church?
Quiet Faith is hallowed ground, a little bit like going to church, and a powerful voice for the faithful who actually practice what they preach. Whether you are a full-blown atheist, one of the flock, or a complete hypocrite, you will not leave the same as you entered.
PS Ashton Malcolm says she is playing Desdemona in State Theatre's November production of Othello, and I wouldn't miss that, either.
David Grybowski
When: 8 to 19 Oct
Where: Waterside Workers Hall
Bookings: trybooking.com
University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Little Theatre. 11 Oct 2014
It was a great idea of director Geoff Brittain to present both Strindberg's ‘Miss Julie’, and English comedian and playwright Patrick Marber's version of the famous Swedish three-hander. You can see them together in one night, as I did, on the closing night of the season on 18 October, or only ‘After Miss Julie’ during the week preceding. Unfortunately, the ‘Miss Julie’-only season is kaput.
Strindberg is famous for his innovations in, and essays about, theatre, and particularly as a proponent of the new-fangled thing called naturalism. ‘Miss Julie’ is all of a love triangle, class struggle and kitchen drama. Not to underestimate the challenge, the action seemed to easily transfer to Marber's setting on the day of the 1945 British election when Labour won over Winston Churchill.
Geoff Brittain's set, manifested by Tony Clancy was complete, detailed and adequately passed for the servant's quarters of a manor both in 1888 Sweden and 1945 Britain. I loved Ben Todd's costumes and Jennifer Morris's work on hair and make-up. She considerably enhanced the female roles, especially as the actors traded roles between a servant cook and an aristocrat in the two plays.
Nick Fagan's man servant, betrothed to the cook but risking a roll in the hay with Miss Julie, was grumpy from beginning to end in both plays. I sensed that Fagan missed copious opportunities to find a broader range of responses. Rosie Williams was Miss Julie in the original and Christine the cook in the adaptation - Marber made the latter a diminished role. Williams reached a suitably high level of distress as the Miss, but unfortunately lost considerable power due to breathlessness. Cheryl Douglas was very convincing in both her roles with flashes of brilliance, imbuing her Christine with dignity and her Miss Julie with coquetry. Excellent posture helps. Come to think of it, Williams was pretty good in the hot and horny bits, too.
Notwithstanding the above, ‘Miss Julie’ had edge-of-seat tension throughout. Miss Julie's sensually dangerous games and her improper exertion of power and subsequent fall had a similarity to Salome (which actually post-dates Miss Julie by three years). While I perceived this during ‘Miss Julie’ (no, really, ask my companion that night!), Marber actually mentions this in ‘After Miss Julie’. Geoff Brittain coached his actors to find Strindberg's razor sharp transformations of shifted status, changed plans, and switched loyalties with terrific timing, and demonstrated the same with ebullient blocking. The tension lifts a teeny bit in ‘After Miss Julie’, simply because you get the plot, but there is great pleasure in hearing the 1945 vernacular, and you get carried away with it anyway.
I would certainly choose to be there on Saturday, 18 October.
David Grybowski
When: 4 to 18 Oct
Where: The Little Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
Stirling Players. Stirling Theatre. 12 Oct 2014
Written by John Hodge and directed by Megan Dansie, Collaborators is based on real characters and events (with a healthy dose of dramatic licence) and finds famous Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, a heavily censored Russian playwright who is considered an enemy of the Soviet authorities, commissioned to write a play about Stalin's life for the celebration of the ruler's 60th birthday. In a show of force, Bulgakov is told that if he doesn’t complete the play his career will be destroyed by the closing of his latest work, Moliere, and his family is at risk of assassination. Bulgakov is morally opposed to Stalin's oppressive regime and has made his politics felt, however oddly he somewhat owes his career to the soviet leader who is apparently one of his biggest fans, and after all what choice does he have? So he decides to write the play; but does he?
This play is wonderfully constructed. Hodge presents a darkly comic interpretation of a horrible time in history and then further blurs the lines between reality and dream worlds. The show makes for great debate after leaving the theatre – both about the happenings on stage and the intention of the playwright underpinning it all. Perhaps Hodge didn’t have an overarching message to deliver; maybe it was a simple, time worn, comment on society (human conflict, freedom speech, revolution, etc). Either way director Megan Dansie leaves it hanging up in the air – a risk if the players are not all on the same page – but a risk that has, in this instance, paid off.
So many of the questions I had when I left the theatre remain, but I feel OK about that because it intrigues me. Is Stalin real or a hallucination personified by the guilt Bulgakov feels about writing the play? Does Stalin really write the play on Bulgakov’s behalf in that dank basement of the Kremlin, or is it all in Bulgakov’s head? Is Bulgakov really ordering the NKVD to carry out Stalin’s requests or merely making connections in his mind to recent local events? Are Bulgakov’s improved living conditions a reward for being Stalin’s new friend or just a coincidence? Is Bulgakov deluded by his terminal illness or is that his ‘method’ for writing a story he despises? The play presents a lot of reasons why you might believe one thing or another at any one time. Most interesting perhaps is that it never clears it up.
Gary George plays Mikhail Bulgakov with wonderful light and shade. His torment is gradually revealed as the play within a play unravels. George’s Bulgakov is wonderfully challenged by the complexities of governance and his utter disbelief at how a simple order can tear a country apart is evident. George gives Bulgakov a gut wrenching sense of self-loathing towards the end and you cannot help but feel empathy towards the man. His continuous energy onstage was unrivalled.
Peter Davies plays Joseph Stalin like something out of a comedy sketch show and it works wonderfully. Davies’ characterisation makes the penultimate twist all the more perverse and transformed Stalin from an every man, misunderstood and irresponsible to a paranoid psychopath.
Steve Marvanek in the role of Valdimir, a secret policeman, is equally menacing and tormented. Vladimir has a small story of his own bubbling away in the background and Marvanek really makes something of that adding an extra dimension to the piece. He also successfully avoids the easy comedy (a secret policeman with artistic tendencies!) and gives Vladimir more human qualities that ultimately transition well into his suspected defection and eventual ending. Vladimir’s internal torment is evident.
Sharon Malujilo as Yelena Bulgakov (Mikhail’s wife), Alex Antonio as Grigory, a censored novelist and friend to Bulgakov, David Lockwood as the Doctor and Samuel Rogers and Joshua Coldwell as the actors presenting the play within a play were all standout supports.
Rogers and Coldwell offer up some fantastic elements of comedy which (although only occasionally stealing the focus) lighten the mood and point up the comedy of the piece. Antonio had some of the most poignant lines in the play. His troubles are clear and his suicide very evocative. Malujilo makes her Yelena not only a critic of her lover’s work but also a measure of his delusion, transforming her performance as his deterioration takes hold; like holding up a mirror.
The set, designed by Malcolm Horton, fits the stage well but offers some very odd entrance and exit points which do confuse the action in the first half. Once the energy of the play builds late in the first half these frustrations became less of a problem. The repeated use of doors and set pieces to represent different locations does take a while to get used to, but Dansie has made use of this confusion to give the piece a strong and punchy pace that keeps the action very tight and intense.
This is a very enjoyable production of a most intriguing play. There are only 3 performances left, so I encourage you to check it out.
Paul Rodda
When: 3 to 18 Oct
Where: Stirling Community Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
State Theatre Company of SA. The Bakehouse Thaetre. State Umbrella. 11 Oct 2014
The latest word in agit prop theatre, Ian Meadows' Between Two Waves expounds, extrapolates and exhorts on the issues of climate change. There's nothing subtle about it. It is a full throttle anxiety play. It is not just the scientific issues of climate change but the characters who are cracking up under the fear and frustration of it all.
The principal character is a scientist who goes to work for the government's climate change department hoping to make a difference. But politics has corporate interests at heart. The more you say , the more impenetrable the brick wall. Perhaps.
One hopes that Meadows' doomsday scenario will not be realised in real life. After all, Daniel, the scientist of the piece, has problems other than climate change. He is severely dysfunctional in almost every way; some may see him as having Asperger’s syndrome. He is work obsessed and has family issues, childhood guilts, acute anxiety and science-nerd ineptitude in dealing with women. On top of all this, his view of climate change is apocalyptic.
And there it is all around him - flooding rains which bring the insurance agent to catalogue the damage in his world. Of course, she is also the enemy - a front for corporate exploitation and legal clauses contrived to evade payouts.
Enter Elena Carapetis with sheath dress, stilettos, clipboard and mobile phone as the evil claims stooge. And what a lovely performance of corporate doublespeak. She doesn't miss a trick - and she is pretty tricky. It is a character which develops as the plot evolves and we meet her heart and vulnerability as the weather closes in. It's a Carapetis coup.
But she is not alone in powerful performance because Matt Crook is there on stage beside her - an exceptional young actor. He is all angst and uncertainty in the role of Daniel, strong only when trying to explain the science to the media. But Daniel has no common touch so Crook spends a lot of the play as a bit of a shuddering mess, from time to time having massive panic attacks which are exhausting to watch. It is not an easy role but Crook, under Corey McMahon's direction, makes him something of a tragic hero, weighed down by his belief in the imminence of climatic apocalypse.
This and his general nerdiness hamper his ability to forge relationships with women - until Fiona comes along. She plays by her own rules and, as it happens, works for the very climate department in which Daniel goes to work. They strike up a relationship. Ellen Steele steps into her skin and gives it intense vibrancy. She is more than engaging. There is something luminous about her, and it is not just the red hair.
James Edwards plays the one other character, the university professor for whom Daniel had worked before getting his PhD and heading out to work for the government. It's a simpatico performance, ably complementing the senior actors in the pivotal roles.
It's a complex play with simultaneous timelines which are quite effective. It also is wordy and didactic but with lots of passion and expressions of human vulnerability. It's a tragedy but it is not without hope.
McMahon gives it a strong, punchy pace, making it tight and intense.
The set helps. Olivia Zanchetta has designed a tropical-style room with long, louvred windows and a ceiling which one feels coming in on one. The walls are cunningly created to be semitransparent and, at the play's climax, to be pelted by water which pours in torrential rivulets down its panels. Throw in Nic Mollison's usual standard of perceptive lighting and Jason Sweeney's smart sound design, and one has a terrific production.
The play, however, still seems to have some teething pains. It has been long in the making and, thought provoking as it is, it niggles with the odd logistical perturbation.
The bandage on Dan's hand is plain annoying. It is perhaps symbolic of injuries to the world, but it is also purportedly covering an injury to the character and it remains upon his person through the thick and thin of the play's timeline, becoming a puzzling distraction - which is unworthy of a play with a serious message.
Samela Harris
When: 9 to 25 Oct
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au