Bedside Manners

Therry Theatre. Arts Theatre. 11 Nov 2022

Tearing in at the end of a show’s run is an unfair way to give it a review. Sometimes circumstances cannot be helped. But, oh what a downright pity it is that the theatre-going public cannot be warned that missing out on this show is to miss out on a belly full of laughs and giggles.

So, unless you can speed down to the arts this very night, November 12, you’ve missed it.

Bedside Manners is a British farce by Derek Benfield. It centres around a hapless fellow standing in for his sister as receptionist at an English countryside hotel. The room phones are out of order and the guests are both devious and needy. They are having naughty weekends. There are lots of doors and cross-purposes in a wonderfully complicated but efficient and good-looking set designed by Gary Anderson.

There’s a cast of five, two couples and the aforementioned stand-in receptionist, Ferris. David Sinclair gets a workout which leaves the audience exhausted just watching him as he thunders up and down the stairs between the reception desk and the two guest rooms, dealing with the ever accruing shambles which the guests bring upon themselves. It is ridiculously silly and cumulatively hilarious. The upstairs bedrooms are very small and there is a lot of footwork for the actors, all very artfully directed by Jude Hines. 

Between the direction, the set, and the tight focus of the actors, it is really quite a physical masterpiece.

David Sinclair embodies poor old, long-suffering, over-tipped Ferris with nice comic nuance while Steven Bills and Patrick Clements deliver a couple of smarmily devious infidels losing themselves and the kitchen sink on the world’s worst lost weekend in the country. Their targets of desire are very pukkah County women, colourfully stereotyped by Rose Harvey and, with extra bells on for exquisite impeccability, Leah Lowe.

The whole show is just a jolly good giggle tonic.

 Samela Harris

When: 3 to 12 Nov

Where: Arts Theatre

Bookings: Closed

Swan Lake

The United Ukrainian Ballet. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 9 Nov 2022

The program notes start with a heart-felt and eloquent message from the producers Andrew Guild and Simon Bryce. They remark that “Before the dancers of The United Ukrainian Ballet even step upon the stage today they have triumphed. ….. As we present and perform Swan Lake, tragedies continue to unfold in Ukraine. We pray for a just end to the war. In working on this project, the gravity of the situation rarely leaves us. However today we celebrate. Today we dance.”

The United Ukrainian Ballet was formed barely six months ago from displaced Ukrainian dancers, and this begs the question why would they tour at all and why Swan Lake rather than something else? Perhaps it is because Swan Lake is one of the most popular and best known ballets ever to have graced a stage. Perhaps it is because the essence of the storyline is the triumph of good over evil. Perhaps it is because Swan Lake has political significance in Russia: it has been broadcast on Soviet-era radio and television at various times in the 1980s to point to the death of leaders in advance of any official word from the Kremlin. We can only hope. Perhaps it is for all these reasons, but whatever the reason, this evening’s opening night performance in the Adelaide Festival Theatre was indeed a triumph.

The storyline of Swan Lake has been tinkered with over the years to include a range of endings, and so for this production to use the ‘they live happily ever after’ conclusion was perhaps wise. The production was a joyous, beautiful, and stirring display of humanity at its best, and the final curtain call, at which immeasurable national pride and inspiring defiance was on full display, is something that will live in the hearts and minds of the emotional and cheering audience for a long time to come.

This reviewer is far from being an aficionado of dance and technique. Indeed, differentiating between a pirouette and a fouetté is a personal struggle, and the difference between a pas de trois and pas de quatre is just about the numbers, isn’t it? What this reviewer can say, unequivocally, is that one cannot help but be impressed with the beauty and athleticism on display from the dancers. Kateryna Chebykina in the dual roles of Odette and Odile is grace and beauty personified, as she breathes individuality into both characters. Oleksii Kniazkov dances Prince Siegfried alongside her and convincingly portrays the lonely royal who must marry for the good of the state rather than for love. Kniazkov is regal but also appropriately boyish when he is first smitten by the sight of Odette. Chebykina and Kniazkov are perfect together, and their duets are a highlight of the production.

Oleksiy Grishun plays Rothbart with great menace and guile. Although he is smaller in body compared to Kniazkov, his strength of characterisation threatens to diminish all those around him.

But no one on stage eclipses the Jester, nimbly performed by Pavlo Zurnadzhi with great humour and presence. In the great tradition of Falstaff, the Jester’s antics and insolence is tolerated by the court, and Zurnadzhi imbues the role with comical arrogance has he leaps and scampers his way around the stage, and encourages the audience to applaud, but he didn’t need to!

Ganna Surmina as the Queen and Viktor Lytvynenko as the Tutor dance their roles with assuredness and dignity.

The ‘signature’ dances of Swan lake are performed with great style and skill, and delight the appreciative audience who react with spontaneous applause.. The Dance of the Little Swans, danced by Anastasiia Bakum, Polina Dzhura, Alvina Krout and Daria Manoilo, is just beautiful. They dance with precision but also with tenderness and innocence. The Pas de Trois in Act 1 is performed by Daria Manoilo, Nikita Potapchuk and Vasylysa Nykyforova, and it too meets expectations with exquisite lines, balance, and poise. A joy to behold. The Big Swans are elegantly and strongly danced by Ella Mansford and Lara Paraschiv.

Also impressive is the corps de ballet, and their performances of the Spanish, Hungarian and Neapolitan dances, and the Mazurka, brim with life and joie de vivre.

This is a very traditional production of Swan Lake. The sumptuous sets comprise painted back drops that are richly detailed. Pleasingly, for this reviewer, not a giant LCD screen is in evidence! The costumes are also traditional and beautifully constructed with a rich palette of fabrics and finishes. On a less positive note, the company danced to a recorded soundtrack of Tchaikovsky’s iconic score, but it lacked dynamic balance and was at times languid. To the credit of the dancers, the absence of a conductor in front of a live orchestra largely did not matter, with perhaps the exception of several of the adagio routines in which perfect synchronisation of movement was occasionally lacking.

This production is a triumph of the human spirit, and it is also great art. Igone Jongh, the artistic leader of the company, has succeeded in realising her vision, and the dancers of the company have our admiration.

Brava!

Kym Clayton

When: 9 to 13 Nov

Where: Festival Theatre

Bookings: premier.ticketek.com.au

Single Asian Female

OzAsia Festival. State Theatre Company South Australia. Dunstan Playhouse. 8 Nov 2022

Playwright Michelle Law says she is surprised this Chinese-restaurant, kitchen-sink comedy is showing such longevity. Now it has opened in Adelaide, one does not share the surprise. This is a cross-cultural, racial-identity, intergenerational romp. It works very nicely in a festival celebrating Asia and cultural understanding.

It’s all about the Wong family in their Chinese restaurant, depicted onstage with a broad set of classic Chinese iconography, with metal stairway leading to upstairs rooms where the family lives.

The family is Pearl, a recently divorced tiger mum, and daughters Zoe, a talented violinist, and Mei in the throes of the last year of school. Law develops the sense of cloying Chinese domestica and racial stereotypes before expanding the plot to deal with more complex issues of the Australian male, sex and law. More stereotypes - but that is the whole point and it is thrown to the audience in a strident emotional roller coaster. Not all of the humour hits home, but the sense of intimacy and understanding of the single-mum battler family warms the old heart cockles.  And there’s a bit of karaoke, therein, as well. They’re good singers and clearly relish the fun of it all. Oddly, when the actresses demonstrate that they can reach an Australia’s-Got-Talent-style high note, the theatre audience goes nuts and one ponders the nature of modern appreciation.

Indeed, there are some eloquent dramatic moments in this play far more deserving of acclaim. For instance, there’s the scene with Pete or is it Paul, when discussing who has rights to decisions over a woman’s body. Allan Lyra Chang is the only male in the cast and he has a really notable stage presence; an actor worth looking out for. The other males are played by Kristen O’Dwyer and Kathryn Adams who are doubling and tripling up from their roles as the white friends of Zoe and Mae. They are the high comic relief in the play in each context with some nice satirical characterisations. Juanita  Navas-Nguyen delivers very capably the older daughter, Zoe, the girl who has had to carry family responsibility and fulfil family expectations, ever in search of where she may fit in to Australian society.  Elvy-Lee Quici depicts the long-suffering young sister, Mae. It is a role which explains a lot about how it feels to be the only Asian girl in a big Aussie school.

Indeed, the play itself very explicitly exposes the underbelly of the Asian immigrant experience with Fiona Choi making a very rich and satisfying (Chinese) meal of the lead role, the brave matriarch forging the family path through the rocky road of finance, identity, and cultural tradition. One cheers for her, weeps for her, and believes in her.

The action ticks along efficiently under Nescha Jelk’s direction, with an interesting set and fun costumes from Ailsa Paterson plus nifty lighting from Chris Petridis. There is only Andrew Howard’s quirky soundscape left to ponder.

For, indeed, if there is one thing in which this play succeeds with only the odd burst of didacticism, it is in the truthful telling of the Asian cultural experience in Australia today.

Samela Harris

When: 4 to 19 Nov

Where: Dunstan Playhouse

Bookings: premier.ticketek.com.au

Reasonable Doubt

STARC Productions. Holden Street Theatres. 3 Nov 2022

A game of counterpoised views and secret needs, within a game of ‘truth’.

This fascinating dance of psychology plays out between two former jurors, Anna (Stefanie Rossi) and Mitchell (Marc Clement), two years after a hung jury murder trial. Anna’s clear, long-held, needy obsession with Mitchell is quietly disturbing. Mitchell’s uneasy acquiescence to this is equally troubling. The luxury Singapore apartment booking is his.

Their reminiscing replay of the trial runs parallel to that of their relationship during the trial.

There is a huge psychological and emotional hole these two seem desperate to fill. The outcome of the trial, for both. For Anna especially, the truth of Mitchell as a guiding light of a traumatic experience.

It starts to get messy the more evasive Mitchell gets and the more questioning Anna becomes. Something is wrong here. The verdict as they see it is at stake. They, as people to each other, is also in question.

Director Tony Knight’s production succeeds in building an almost unbearable tension in the space between the characters, but it falters in scene break blackouts which confuse, rather than double down on that tremendous undercurrent.

There are moments the equity of play between characters stiffens rather than flows. The fault is quickly rectified, but leaves a mark nonetheless.

Despite this, and a somewhat ordinary lighting design, this production does the job of attacking playwright Suzie Miller’s essential thesis. What happens when you reconsider a verdict in a life and death trial?

David O’Brien

When: 2 to 12 Nov

Where: Holden Street Theatres

Bookings: holdenstreettheatres.com