State Theatre Company South Australia. Dunstan Playhouse. 14 Feb 2023
The Goat brings an opening night to go down in the Adelaide history books.
It was a beautiful warm evening and even though having applauded through countless curtain calls, the audience was not flocking out into it.
Instead, the audience filled the foyer in a deafening crush of wild animation. It had just experienced a benchmark production of one of the world’s most outrageously provocative and devilishly witty plays. It was on a high.
Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia? may well be modern STC’s piece-de-resistance production. Throwing a thesaurus of superlatives at it would not be going too far. Nor would popping director Mitchell Butel onto a plinth.
Of course, there are three major stars involved in this triumph.
Claudia Karvan may shed any fleeting doubt she had about returning to the live theatre. Hers is a breathtaking performance. She portrays Stevie, the hapless good wife dealing not only with the exposure of her husband’s infidelity but the mindboggling fact that “the other woman” is a goat called Sylvia. Karvan produces an impressive palette of emotions, her reactive versatility extending to extremely compelling facial twitching. That’s a totality of physicality from an actor. But, her role also calls for clowning as her character thrashes through incredulity, fury, and heartbreak; Karvan can do that, too. And, with that strong, sharp voice, she etches every word into the auditorium with clarity.
Nathan Page parries, his voice husky with emotion as he delivers confessional torrents in the role of Martin, a husband as adamant about his stance as he is defensive.
It’s a war of incredulity, the passions periodically punctuated by grammatical corrections, stop, shock, and laugh moments in a torrid script. The playwright has drawn these characters as highly educated people with almost OCD pedantic streaks. It is delicious.
The director, meanwhile, has artfully used stillness in Page to heighten crumbling Martin’s emotional interplay, albeit that he is an actor of exceptional physical grace. Mark Saturno brings the bombastic element to the domestic hearth as Martin's TV interviewer-cum-best-friend, Ross. His is the voice of the outside world, while Yazeed Daher, as the gay teenage son, Billy, speaks for the cause of acceptable sexual diversity. Bestiality is not in its scope, and yet, while it appals, it is a thing.
In braving this issue, Albee has created a play which has continued to shock and fascinate audiences since 2002, provoking furious foyer discussions. The play has just kept on reaping awards in all directions. Some people are offended but most have recognised that this is a great classic tragedy, almost perfectly wrought, its dramatic roots reaching back to Greek mythology. And yet it is so funny, bitterly, shamefully, guffaw funny.
State’s expert production values sing their own beautiful song in this presentation. The sophisticated urbanity of Jeremy Allen’s slick New York set, with its with Frank Lloyd Wright-esque modernist chic, reflects the success and erudition of its occupants. Ailsa Paterson’s costumes, similarly, make the right notes with Karvan at first in a stunning pleated skirt which emphasises her femininity and social confidence and then in high-waisted striped lounging trousers which are just-so for the needs of a tortured clown. Again, right on the mark. As is Nigel Levings’ lighting plot, throwing day and night, ease and crisis into artful relief.
If the production continues with this excellence and momentum through its season, it is creating a laugh-and-cry entity which seriously needs to be experienced. From this critic, the message is: Do Not Miss It.
Samela Harris
When: 14 to 25 Feb
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: statetheatrecompany.com.au
Bunbury Productions. Dunstan Playhouse. 1 Feb 2023
“This show is respectfully dedicated to the sexiest and most interesting people in the world: theatre critics.”
What can one say? What good taste from a cast of working thespians. And these are elderly thespians. They’ve been around. And around. At least two of them are household names. They should know.
Of course, their simpering adulation makes a critic smile.
Fortunately, so does their show.
Mono follows in the footsteps of the Senior Moment productions which easily packed theatres with seniors all too happy to make fun of the tedious frailties and foibles of turning old.
This one stars evergreen John Wood of Blue Heelers fame, living legend Max Gilles of the Max Gilles Reports and, would-be senior, Emily Taheny of Mad As Hell.
It is touted as a “three-person one-man show” since it consists of a series of monologues and solo skits.
Behind the scenes as director, script-writer and author of the outrageously comical program notes, is one Angus FitzSimons. Funny fellow. One imagines he probably has a PhD in serious silliness.
Certainly, in the hit-and-miss world of comedy skits, he delivers more hits than misses and there are laughs a-plenty, sometimes uproarious, sometimes chuckles.
The three stars are consummate professionals, as well they should be at their age. Their timing and delivery is impeccable. Taheny, who does an hilarious school principal's address and a wildly slosho mother-of-the-bride speech, not to mention an old new-age cliche-laden take on the quasi-Eastern rules of life, is not dependent on notes, being the new kid on the elderly block. The old fellows, however, have their scenes devised around unreliable memories. Gilles largely mimes with that beloved expressive face and Wood, with his finely resonating actor’s voice, reads from scripts.
The content is entirely simpatico with the use of notes and the stars pull it off with aplomb.
The audience adores them.
As for the critics? Praise be. They’re charmed.
Samela Harris
When: 1 to 5 Feb
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: ticketek.com.au
Bunbury Productions. Dunstan Playhouse. 1 Feb 2023
With Mono – A Three-Person One-Man Show, the not-so-long-in-years playwright and writer, Angus FitzSimons, has reprised his comical concerns for the gracefully and disgracefully aging clinging to their power that were evident in his 2019 hit, Senior Moments: The Complete Guide on How to Be Senior. And in case you missed Senior Moments…, you can buy the book! The productions also have in common two of Australia’s treasured acting assets: Max Gillies and John Wood. And in Mono, they are accompanied by the irrepressible Emily Taheny of current Mad as Hell fame.
I’ll start with the program because it was the funniest thing in the production. Bravo! Angus FitzSimons’ program reads and resembles a senior’s glossy magazine and, seniors! It was available at no extra charge! It’s crammed with loopy photos, fake reviews, Q&As, riddles, trivia tests, dubious information and useless advice. What a hoot! For example: “Q: What does F.A.Q. stand for? A: F.A.Q.’d if I know.”
As a comic vehicle, the show was more of a zimmer frame than a 280Z. The trio trot out in turn to do their shtick on a bare stage in front of a lectern, one at a time, often with notes. The skit characters vary from schoolmarm to conductor to a cutting vengeful speech from the mother of the bride. All had direct appeal and audience engagement and wonderfully developed characterisations. Emily Taheny seemed the brightest – might have been her costumes and hair changes – but more likely her refreshing emergence from the angry anarchy of absurdity conveyed by the Mad as Hell characters. John Wood fits into his policeman’s role from his long Blue Heelers engagement, reading out a whacky chain of evidence from the witness box, but even he could not save the auctioneer skit from tedium. Max Gillies is clearly the elder statesman and his facial gestures and body language speak volumes and still command the attention that they always have, especially where words aren’t spoken. His pathetic bumbling priest was heaven.
But Mono could also mean mono-tonous. All the skits were of the same pace as if an imaginary handbrake was on, and all themed of seniors lost or out of touch. There was no scene-setting music or visuals. And imagine having three of Australia’s great and proven talents on the same stage and not uttering a single word to each other? But this is an established and time-tested format. Of course, comedy wasn’t the only goal - poignancy and empathy was rife. How about Max’s character at the art gallery mistaking the fire protection gear on the wall for the artwork? That had it all, as did most of the expertly rendered writing.
A night of quiet chuckles and heart-warming reflections on what it’s like to be sagacious yet sidelined.
David Grybowski
When: 1 to 5 Feb
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: ticketek.com.au
Access2Arts. True Ability. Around Adelaide. 21 Jan 2023
Whenever one hears the name of Alirio Zavarce, one knows something special is happening.
For Fringe 2023, he is hooked up with the talented Kelly Vincent and a new group, the True Ability Ensemble.
It consists of very able deaf and disabled artists and, with dramaturgy by Vincent and direction by Zavarce, they’ve gone high tech all over the Adelaide cityscape.
They have injected new life and fresh imagery to old landmarks. It’s a terrific venture, charming, enlightening and clever.
It’s all about QR codes.
And people.
Scan the codes to discover the people. They will come to video life onscreen on your phone - right there and then - to tell their stories of special places.
Hannah really warms the cockles of the old bibliophile heart. She’s enamoured of the Adelaide City Library. It’s “her” place in the city. She’s as avid as avid readers can be and she sparkles with love for books and the niches in which readers can find literary nourishment.
Then there’s Kym. He’s well known as an actor and, surprise, surprise, the Festival Centre is his special place. He loves it because it is rich in memories of performance and there are some snatches of him actually doing that thing. Lovely footage. Stunning lighting.
Talking of good footage, one can’t go past James, the juggler mirrored in the Malls Balls, his special spot.
Lucy’s enthusiasm for the Myer Centre, the city Christmas tree and the bright world of retail is positively infectious. No wonder she is such a fashion plate.
Deeply personal and revelatory is Ad’m whose special place is Hindmarsh Square. We experience it from his wheelchair. He tells of when he found out about his neurological impairment, what a lonely place was life in “the closet” and the joy of finding others who relate to this.
The divine Kelly Vincent also sees the world from a wheelchair but the world she shows us is Parliament House where she had an outstanding political career for some years. It is not politics she focuses on in this city videos series, it is the land of the heart. It’s a wonderful story.
There are more, of course. There is Justine in Hindley Street, wonderful Rachel with the Rundle St Escalator which we all miss, plus Michelle with elephant memories at the Zoo.
There is no other show like this one. It is right off the wall and out on the streets and yet in the comfort and privacy of the mobile phone. It is nostalgic and now. It is touching and fun.
There’s a Google map so one can scan the codes, visit the places and see the faces - and get your steps up as well.
Bravo Alirio, Kelly and the ensemble! Love it.
Samela Harris
From January 13 onwards
More info: trueability.org.au
Hew Parham. Brink Productions. Space Theatre. 17 Jan 2023
‘The Symphony of the Bicycle’ is in some ways Hew Parham’s one man tribute to the Italian cycle racer Gino Bartoli, but it is much more than that.
Context.
Opening night for this theatre show was scheduled midweek during the Tour Downunder, so you can assume the full house was partisan, on board and understanding. Parham reveals an understanding of the life and times of Bartoli (known as ‘the Pious’ for his faith and dedication) and as an Italian champion who gave his efforts for Italy, and was lauded in his own country yet perhaps not so highly rated elsewhere, even though he won the Tour de France.
Clearly Parham is a fan of cycling and of Bartoli in particular, but two points need be made: Fausto Coppi is better known and the better cyclist, though Bartoli had a peasant’s heroic back-story. His career was halted by the Second World War, and many years later it was discovered that Bartoli had kept cycling on training rides through the war years as cover for his activities saving Jews from the Nazi’s as he rode across northern Italy with documents secreted within his bike frame.
In telling the story of his hero worship, Parham introduces other characters into the performance narrative, and it on this point things seem to become a little hazy for me. If there is to be a hero it is usual that there be an anti-hero, and this role is filled by the unlikable fitness guru Gavin Chestnutt. In his attempt to become a cyclist of note Parham also butts heads with a childhood friend (perhaps not a friend), the boofheaded athlete Jake Johnson, who steals the girl and becomes a cycling champion. We do therefore have in these protagonists the foils to Parham’s success, but herein lies my confusion.
I am not sure whether Parham’s story here is about achievement or conquest. Whether ‘tis better to suffer for one’s great triumphs (sporting glory in this narrative) or to pursue the goal of being a better person? Bartoli himself was beset by doubts and anxiety, and in many ways I felt the telling of the story Symphonie de la Bicyclette would be much strengthened by simplicity.
The performance by the way was excellent; Parham is accomplished and organised in his character reveal. An accent is adjusted, the timing is altered slightly and he, at times, overplays his hand and tips in pathos. It is an excellent performance but my mind had wandered as I contemplated the provenance of the only major prop on stage, a gleaming gold bicycle on an indoor training stand. I later discovered many other cyclists in the audience had similarly wandered in their thoughts, but by the end of the show I felt I knew little more than I had discovered by around about minute 20 (I shall not give away the ending because it seemed a little anticlimactic, in any case).
“I was so busy trying to be someone else I forgot to be me,” Parham says at one point. It seems a perfectly apposite reflection.
Alex Wheaton
When: Closed
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: Closed