State Theatre Company South Australia. The Space Theatre. 3 May 2023
Playwright Duncan Macillan is probably best known for co-writing the stage adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 a few years back. He also penned People, Places and Things to get the discussion going on drug and alcohol addition and recovery. That went so well – Best New Play at the Olivier Awards in 2015. But before that, he tackled suicidality with a short story that he subsequently developed with co-writer and British comedian, writer and performer, Jonny Donahue into Every Brilliant Thing. Donahue has played the role in this one-hander 600 times, but in Adelaide, Jimi Bani smashes it with his sensitive, quirky, kind and gently wry expressiveness. Bani made his formidable presence known in State’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? last year.
Reading the playwrights’biographies, along with that of local director, Yasmin Gurreeboo, they are like-minded in their strong desires to deliver meaningful theatre about the hardest issues of personal tragedy with an ardent belief that theatre ought to be transformational.
Every Brilliant Thing is absolutely charming and engaging in its concept and execution. Jimi Bani, simply by entering the stage, has the audience in the palm of his hand. We see a young boy’s introduction to unfathomable unhappiness complete with incomprehension, guilt and an aching desire to help. Help comes in the form of writing down every brilliant thing in the world. A list to show Mum life is worth living. The list starts: 1, and an audience member calls out a brilliant thing. Then 2, 3, 4…531, 532…789… more brilliant things; you guess how many. They are not all spoken, of course, but you get the drift. The boy has counselling at school by a councillor’s hand puppet so he is reached. The boy grows up and the list gets longer. Her love life blossoms but there is a shadow. 11,278…11,279. Mum has a second attempt. 538,675, 538,676…
The theatre space is set up with bleachers on four sides, and the lights are kept on throughout. There is nowhere to hide. Audience members are selected in the most solicitous, non-threatening way to participate as say, the father, the girlfriend, the mother…no, she is never seen. The fight or flight mode get switched off and audience members are amazingly co-operative and even helpful. Everybody loves what’s going on.
And it wouldn’t be this way without Jimi Bani’s gifts. He’s a rather large man with a great sense of rhythm shown by enviable dance steps in a plethora of styles and, you would think it’s not possible to demonstrate a love of music without actually loving music. There are plenty of tunes because our life - everyone’s life it seems - is signposted with songs. He even got a young woman to get down on one knee and propose to him in their characters. By this time, I think anybody in the swooning audience would have done anything for him. There is a euphoria of participation and eager to laugh and a few moments later to wipe away a tear from the warmth or the sadness in sympathy with the struggle.
The script moves between amusement and message with ease. There is a showstopping, “Don’t do it,” and then on the play travels to some Lifeline advice and inbetween there is the excitement of the list. Bani and Gurreeboo know when to pause, to laugh, to bring the audience into the intimacy, to encourage an understanding of the ramifications of suicide on the remaining loved ones symbolised by this man’s experience from seven and for a lifetime.
This is my second State Theatre opening this week – the other being Prima Facie – and both earned enthusiastic standing ovations. I am with them. Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 28 Apr to 13 May
Where: The Space Theatre
Bookings: my.statetheatrecompany.com.au
State Theatre Company South Australia. The Space Theatre. 2 May 2023
Prima Facie has been wowing audiences around the globe since Griffin Theatre Company produced the world premiere at the SBW Stables Theatre in Darlinghurst, Sydney, in 2019.
In this one-person law lesson performed with aplomb by Caroline Craig, Australian-British playwright Suzie Miller exposes a flaw in the law; why does a woman who is a complainant witness in a sexual assault case have to undergo rigorous and personally invasive investigation, and then in court - perhaps wholly populated with male legals and lawmen - have to relive the experience in excruciating and humilitating detail, sometimes years later, while the usually male defendant can look on in distain and does not have to say a word?
Does this sound familiar? It should because it’s exactly what happened in the recent Lehrmann trial where we read how Brittany Higgins had to sweat it out during police proceedings and again in court. The point is that Prima Facie addresses issues of justice concerning rape and other sexual assault that are relevant right here, right now.
Suzie Miller knows what she’s talking about. She has written previous plays by drawing on her years as a human rights lawyer and children’s rights advocate in New South Wales. She and her plays have won more awards in Britain and Australia than I can possibly list and she has a laundry list of projects underway. Prima Facie has been 5 stars all the way and earned a standing ovation on my viewing on opening night at the State Theatre Company.
Multi-award-winning director David Mealor chooses the actor he wants to work with then he chooses the play. Caroline Craig was in the Class of 99 at NIDA and went on to a stellar career including the role of Sgt Tess Gallagher in Blue Heelers, and later in Underbelly. Crime, cops and courts all the way with this lot!
With Caroline Craig’s entrance onto a stage dressed bare but one chair, attired in a barrister’s wig and gown, she shows us Tessa’s battle face and also her human face. The audience knows already we were in the presence of greatness. Tessa is a defender of men accused of sexual assault and we learn a lot about the law for we have an insider’s information. There is no truth, only law truth. Never ask your client if they actually did it. Your job is to understand the evidence and let the jury decide. We hear how defending barristers – only some barristers, I hope - can justify their ethical stance for the sake of the great game of winning at all costs.
Craig, Miller and Mealor have teamed up to turn our lawyer into a victim. It is fascinating then riveting. Miller takes her time establishing Tessa’s credentials and her nascent relationship with another lawyer with whom she burns the midnight oil in the office. Later, another night, after too much to drink, we witness the harrowing experience of a date rape. All the more awful to be someone you know under trusting circumstances.
Tessa decides to prosecute and she cross-examines her own case with doubt and distress. Mealor keeps the action swift and the emotional rollercoaster running riot without let-up. The changes from home to cab and bedroom to court proceed apace. Tessa has walked through the lawyer’s looking glass and Craig captures all of her hurt, confusion, humiliation, vulnerability, betrayal and sorrow. She has lost trust in her colleagues and the legal system has turned from a game to a struggle for dignity – “It was the first time I was in court without my armour.” Throughout, I felt it was Tessa telling the story and never Caroline Craig.
Does she win or lose? Like I’m going to tell you. But be sure all women in this situation have lost a lot even before the jury returns. Tessa delivers a final spray to the court – a monologue plea of Shakespearean proportions. Bravo for this and all the rest!
David Grybowski
When: 28 Apr to 13 May
Where: The Space Theatre
Bookings: my.statetheatrecompany.com.au
Famous Last Words. Goodwood Theatre and Studios. 20 Apr 2023
This world premiere is an exceptional piece of theatre not to be missed!
The original Miss Julie was written by Swede August Strindberg in 1888. The play has always been controversial with feminists because Miss Julie is a bit off her game and her creator attributes this in part to “the excitement of dancing,…the strongly aphrodisiac influence of flowers,... and her monthly indisposition.” Writing After Strindberg’s is a bit of an industry (Patrick Marber, Polly Stenham, Simon Stone) and it was even a dance in a 1958 German production. And now James Watson.
Local playwright, director and producer James Watson has stripped away the blah-blah and the rubbishy reasoning and created a taut, tense and terrifying 75 minutes absolutely focusing on the love triangle and setting it in our time. He has taken an old fossil, recovered the useful DNA and conjured up a new creature that is thoroughly modern and relevant.
Miss Julie is the alluring discombobulated daughter of a wealthy man sinking in a sea of privilege and meaninglessness. Daddy’s PA, Jean, is a handsome dreamer and his wife, Kristine, has befriended Julie out of pity. We first see the girls partying and later Jean arrives. Dangerously, Julie and Jean spend the wee hours awake and alone until the light of dawn when the shit really hits the fan. And thus we have a pulchritudinous love triangle.
Watson has written a fitting adaptation to our times. Circumstances aren’t stated but drip-fed through action. Dance music, mobile phones, drinking games, and ultra-authentic chit chat hitch a ride on the narrative arc. The creative team convey the rhythms and rankles of young adults trying to find their way with frightening verisimilitude.
The performances are fantastic. They are so fantastic I was embarrassed as an eavesdropper witnessing the intimacy. Pauses, glances, worried looks, and askances convey as much as the dialogue. Kate Owen (Julie), Emelia Williams (Kristine) and Christian Bartlett (Jean) and Watson are all graduates of Flinders Drama Centre, and Watson and William’s Famous Last Words theatre company reminds me of the Flinders graduates who performed amazing work at the now defunct Bakehouse Theatre back in the 80s. The ending could have been more satisfying. It looked like everybody just gave up and went their separate ways.
Watson didn’t mind utilising the female body types to convey motivation. Owen as Miss Julie is indeed a siren beckoning her sailor to the rocks. Her mad enthusiasm is infectious and dangerous and the anticipated train wreck is excruciating to behold. The tension never lets up. Jean and Kristine are battlers and respectful of earned money; Jean wants to live the American dream and Julie sees her saviour through coke-stained eyes. Julie and Jean’s longing for escape are a perfect storm. To get there, Watson and his actors convey frequent changes of status and its an audience’s guessing game where it’s going, unless of course, you already know, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be fascinated and horrified by the predicament so realistically portrayed - it could be you.
Double bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 18 to 29 Apr
Where: Goodwood Theatre and Studios
Bookings: eventbrite.com
Rocky Horror Company. Festival Theatre. 19 Apr 2023
My goodness! Has it been 50 years since Richard O’Brien penned every tidbit of his salacious tale of interplanetary transsexualism? I was not surprised to learn that the ultimate source of all this whackiness is that Richard O’Brien is a Kiwi. He was a youthful creature of the double feature in Hamilton, NZ, where his statue now stands erect. Just as O’Brien harkened back to the science fiction of the 50s, Rocky Horror’s theme of sexual frivolity and freedom impregnated with the thrill of the chase and taking chances reflects a time of less cares. Then again, the protagonist turns out the be the dangerous antagonist who must die for his excesses. In the musical, he’s killed with a laser beam, in real life it’s an STD.
The Adelaide audience is on the rollercoaster of an eighteen-year-old production directed by genious Christopher Luscombe. Unlike others, Luscombe says, he likes to freshen up each reprise in a new country by actually attending some rehearsals so he can taylor to the local talent. That explains why in the moving image ads at the Festival Centre, the actor playing the creature Rocky is doing backflips not to be seen on the Australian stage.
Seen by 30 million people in 30 countries in 20 languages, Rocky Horror Show is one of the most successful musicals of all time. And then there’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show of 1975. Both the film and the original stage production were directed by Jim Sharman. Some of you might remember that Sharman was Adelaide Festival Director in 1982 and that he stayed on to form Lighthouse – the halcyon days of South Australian theatre.
The chatty audience succumbed to excitement from the opening bars, antici-pating the great night of rock and irreverence that they got; many in character dress-up, no doubt practiced from drunken midnight showings of the movie. It’s hard to imagine the enthusiasm of Rocky Horror tragics; think of the “deplorables” supporting Trump. The first act songs are the famous of the famous and the audience was enthralled with the glam rock riffs. The Time Warp is orgasmic. Director Luscombe notes the phenomena of audience interjection, famously commonplace in Shakespeare’s day but not the done thing presently. Impressively, most of it is pretty good and the cast is asked to go with the flow. Eg: Janet says, “I don’t like a man with too many muscles,” and a smartass yells out, “Just one big muscle!”
David Bedella playing Frank N Furter has won as many Laurence Olivier awards as there are Three Stooges. His tremendous baritone booms and Furter is at once playfully teasing and disturbed. Bedella was unconvincing though on some dialogue exchanges. Henry Rollo has a tremendously powerful voice and his Riff Raff shakes the rafters. Deirdre Khoo’s and Ethan Jones’s Janet and Brad are delightfully innocent yet bold as they undergo a sexual awakening. Stellar Perry and Darcey Eagle made Magenta and Columbia an exciting coupling with their vocal and physical virtuosity. Loredo Malcolm conveys all the naivety of the newborn yet contrapoints with a fabulous body, nimble movements and melody. Ellis Dolan needs all of Eddie’s brain to give this role even more umph. TV star Myf Warhurst is a definite no-no as Narrator. Her Narrator’s Australian ordinariness and reading of the fable jarred with the ambient flamboyance; she comes across more square than even Janet. Warhurst disarms her interjectioners with grace and humour but like a cautious grade school teacher.
You definitely get bang for your buck with the production values. Nick Richings’ colourful laser lights are hard at work and Sue Blane’s cossies admirably fall somewhere between punk trash and Victoria’s Secrets. Hugh Durrant’s set was suitably cartoony and sci-fi fake naff. He cleverly incorporated a representational swirl of 35 mm film in homage to the Rocky Horror movie. Jack Earle’s band blasts away and drives the intensity and excitement.
The audience couldn’t wait to rise to their feet with applause and the cast responded with several encores including The Time Warp which had everyone dancing as the golden ticker tape flied. With each viewing, the shock and awe of the visual audacity gives way to the sheer brilliance of O’Brien’s multi-themed narrative mixed with juvenile hi-jix. Rocky Horror Show is a masterpiece of spoofy rock music extravagance. Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 13 to 30 Apr
Where: Adelaide Festival Theatre
Bookings: rockyhorror.com.au
Junkyard Dog Productions, Rodney Rigby and others. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 29 March 2023
Unless you live near Perth or Canberra where this production of Come From Away is going next, you better come from away to Adelaide for the greatest, most uplifting and emotionally charged musical you’ll ever see. All the more ebullient as all the characters are based on real people and events from these most extraordinary five days in Gander.
President Bush closed down American airspace immediately following the 9/11 bombings by Boeings. The compliant Canadians next door, presumably sensing less risk and having more compassion, accepted the US-bound traffic. Thirty-eight airplanes with 6,579 people on board landed within hours in Gander, Newfoundland. Gander International was ideal as it’s far from anywhere and huge, having been the re-fueling port for trans-Atlantic travel before jet planes could make the journey on one tank. Gander had a population of about ten thousand on the day over 20 years ago.
We begin with an energetic introduction to the good citizens of Gander going about their business. We are introduced to the strange Newfie accent described as “the lilting bastard child of Scottish, Irish, Welsh, American and French Canadian,” betraying the historical milueu of the island known as “The Rock.” Talented Canadian couple Irene Sankoff and David Hein (book, music and lyrics) convey the charm before the storm with alacrity. Then the news and it dawns on the townfolk, OMG, what do we do? And without hesitation they spring into hyper-hospitality garnering sandwiches and toilet paper from the entire region and turning every community hall into a hostel. The school bus strike was put on ice and the ice rink turned into a walk-in refrigerator. “You would have done it for us,” they said at the good-byes, refusing any money. The extraordinary things these ordinary people did is the stuff of legend.
The aforementioned historical milieu is matched in the music (Michael Tyack – musical director). The pace is set by seven musicians in the wings rendering familiar Newfie pub fare filled with Celtic rifts augmented by symbiotic sounds from other cultures. Director Christopher Ashley creates non-stop action as the cast of twelve switch from eager townsfolk to temperamental passengers plus air crew (40-something characters!) and back again in a snap. The jet speed was made possible by a simple set comprising chairs and tables that in a blink, and almost unnoticeably, are rearranged by the cast from mayor’s office to aircraft to bus to bunk bedding.
I have been to Gander and the museum is full of mementos including scores of thank you notes from passengers and dozens of letters from national leaders thanking the Newfies for taking care of their citizens. What is forgotten is that while the geese and ganders got on with the job, the passengers had no idea what happened, why they were diverted to nowhere they knew, and had no contact with loved ones (very few people had mobile phones then). They hadn’t showered, were stuck on planes in the air and on the ground for up to 15 hours and were grumpy when not plied with alcohol. It wasn’t smooth sailing but the way to handle this was to invite the “come from aways” into their homes and hold a BBQ at the pub complete with a Newfie initiation ceremony including kissing a cod.
The Newfie characters wear their hearts on their sleeves with helpfulness; their passenger characters eventually soften and let down their guard and suspicion. The superb cast handle this heartwarming transition from untrusting to grateful with gumption. There are a dozen true stories weaved into the situation. The middle age Texan woman and Englishman who crave to canoodle. The woman who can’t reach her fireman son in New York. The Rabbi requiring kosher cuisine. The Moslem man who is repeatedly humiliated, all the more poignant as he is head chef for a chain of international hotels. People from 100 countries were grounded and the kaleidoscope of cultural collision was a joy to behold.
In an outstanding cast, there is an outstanding performance of an outstanding real life character. Australian Zoe Gertz plays Beverley Bass who was the first female captain of a commercial plane (with American Airlines) and also diverted on the job to Gander. Sankoff and Hein were so impressed as to give her character an inspirational song of attaining your dreams against all of the odds. Gertz exudes a sense of command and sings pulchritudinously and precisely with thrilling percipience.
Having succumbed to Newfie hospitality myself, my heart was in my throat the entire time. It is so pleasurable to see a positive dramatic situation based on the real deal. And did I say it was fun!
Musical theatre will rarely be any better than this and the standing ovation was instantaneous. Ten stars and triple Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 30 Mar to 29 Apr
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: ticketek.com.au