University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Little Theatre. 20 Nov 2022
Assumptions about the name of this play are cast to the winds when one discovers that American playwright Robert Askins has written about a manic hand puppet created in a church hobby group.
It is an unlikely subject for a play, entirely preposterous and absurdist - which, of course, is the point.
It could be awful, but director Nick Fagan has cast the incomparable Matt Houston in the lead role of Jason, the loser kid who creates Tyrone, a hand puppet which has his own agenda.
This role requires Houston to swing in and out of the two characters, forlorn Jason gradually becoming more and more in the thrall of the Sesame Street-style creation on his hand. Houston not only has to assert and interplay the two characters but also to manipulate the puppet’s arms and evolving actions. If ever there was a challenging role, this is it.
Matt Houston has it right in hand, so to speak.
His performance is bravura and then some. Not that he gets to play likeable. He’s twice despicable and, as it happens, so are all the other characters in the play. Nasty self-interested Bible Belt Christians, the lot of them. Their language alone is repulsive. This play may hold a theatre record for use of the word “fuck”. And, while the interaction between the recently-widowed puppet-making teacher and her hulking boy admirer is quite funny, it is also grotesque - as is she, a duplicitous grimacing mockery of an exploitative mother.
If one had hoped for redemption from the quiet girl, Jessica, forget it. And as for the pastor, well he carries a bible and is pitiable. So, Hand to God is a pretty repugnant play one way or another. It is just Nick Fagan’s directing skills which keep the audience captivated and looking for resolution. It does not resolve very effectively but, the action has been a very wild ride indeed and no one is going to forget this production in a hurry.
Of course, the Little Theatre makes it intensely proximate and Tom Clancy’s marvellous church design on the upper level has sardonic splendour while the Church hall classroom below is as cheap and tacky, as one may expect.
Good sound, good lighting. Good Southern accents from the cast. All the ingredients are there.
The wonderful Brendan Cooney recently of stunning Stones in His Pockets, gives Pastor Greg a goodly serve of suave smug servant of God while Emily Branford takes the ghastly, strident mother/teacher right over the top and into hapless comedic hinterland. One laughs despite oneself. Tom Tassone embodies the big boy, easy to do as a big boy, but his characterisation is exquisitely nuanced and he gives a stand-out performance. Laura Antoniazzi sweetly depicts the sleeper character, the innocent little girl - or is she? She brings down the house when it comes to the no-spoilers-here climactic scene with Houston. By this time the audience is simply agog.
But, this is Matt Houston’s time to shine. He’s one of the finest actors in town and his talent devours and delivers this show. Applause. Applause.
Samela Harris
When: 20 Nov to 17 Dec
Where: The Little Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
Flying Penguin Productions. The Space Theatre. 18 Nov 2022
Basis of play:
Carol: “I’m gonna fail. My course. I’m gonna fail. My degree is gone. Professor, help?”
Professor John: “I need this new house. I need tenure approval. I need to… who is this student?”
Within this conundrum of pain and need, between student failing her course and Professor hanging on to the future, playwright David Mamet plays savagely yet subtly with politics and humanity of higher education and more.
30 years since Oleanna was first produced, it has been attached to many socio-political controversies, greatest of recent time being the #metoo movement.
Director David Mealor’s production certainly addresses it, but is not confined to it.
With excoriating precision, Mealor has crafted a production spinning and turning in such a way that both characters’ needy, angry questioning of the other to understand and see where they’re at (or believe they are) is constantly frustrated by barriers, both put up and of misunderstandings, in what they say.
The three part structure offered is revelatory. It is electrifyingly and utterly brutal in performance. How deftly, sudden and sharply words progress from lazy expressions of entitlement. Sound bites of trite efforts to ‘explain’ the self, ultimately imprisoning and destroying, leaving neither person involved any better off.
Carol is in genuine turmoil. Her pain is crystal clear. John is initially too remote from this. Both are looking for a way to navigate the turbulence of Carol’s desperate enquiry for comprehension. Instead, it becomes a bitter battle between two - at the core - not terribly nice people.
The bare and savage emotion fuelling this production is perfectly served by Designer Kathryn Sproul’s white, slightly raised, square dais, on which is an office desk chair and guest chair.
This dais turns three times. Reflecting the shifting relations between John and Carol; mirroring their demand of the other to ‘see’ and ‘understand’.
Composer Quentin (Quincy) Grant’s score for strings is brilliantly structured and deployed so subtly. It sits, unexpectedly, just beneath the surface tension of the unravelling drama onstage and makes one almost momentarily jump as it kicks in.
Chris Petridis’s lighting comprises sophisticated, granular gradations of white from a whopping bank of lights high upstage, only noticeable after the moment.
These elements greatly support the performers’ work in expressing the unspoken, a key element to any Mamet work.
Renato Musolino as John and Georgia Laity as Carol are greatness onstage. They play off each other with complete confidence and control. The see-saw like rise and falls in their relationship is articulated with precision and clarity, matching the equal divide of incomprehension and ensuring bitterness.
David O’Brien
When: 17 to 26 Nov
Where: The Space Theatre
Bookings: ticketek.com.au
State Opera South Australia. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 11 Nov 2022
What a great idea! “Bright lights and big dreams” is the siren song for theatrical types in the never never that urges them to migrate to the big smoke to make their talent bright and big. In this review of songs from major American musicals, State Opera South Australia’s Artistic Director and director of this production, Stuart Maunder AM, pays homage to Stephen Sondheim and his mentors Leonard Bernstein and Oscar Hammerstein II by choosing songs exclusively from their canon. This was a project Maunder wanted for Sondheim’s 90th birthday in 2020, but you-know-what cancelled anything good that year.
The performers had only the length of Her Majesty’s apron to move on; the rest of the stage was taken by the ever-spot-on Adelaide Symphony Orchestra – the men in comfortable open shirts - under the commanding baton of Anthony Hunt. The starring pairing was of Ben Mingay and Antoinette Halloran. Halloran is all lioness sensuality and bearing. When opposite baritone Ben Mingay, well, [insert lion roar here]. Halloran excels throughout the selections from Sweeny Todd, but it is their duet of A Little Priest that is scintillating. Bravo! Mind you, they have form in reprising their roles from State Opera’s 2021 retelling of the murderous musical. Complementing the razor-sharp performances were their costumes retrieved from Wardrobe; you could drift away into last year’s production.
Alas, this was a missing element of the production. The opening gambit of Comedy Tonight from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum has an over-formal air in tuxedoes. Perhaps a toga or two? Contextualising costumes or at least accoutrements would have been a big help to the imagination. In the West Side Story offering, the Jets and the Sharks look like they took time out from a wedding reception for a little street fighting. Sailor caps in South Pacific? Something? And if tux is the go, make sure it fits. Director Stuart Maunder missed out on a lot of fun by eschewing the thematic dress-ups. Yet the women’s frequent changes into fetching evening frocks is eye candy. Antoinette Halloran is wearing stunning sparkling starlight in one song.
Of course, cossies aren’t the main game and the main game went very well indeed. Love is in the air in the numerous star-crossed lover duets, eg; Jessica Dean and Mat Verevis in West Side Story’s One Hand, One Heart. This was followed and counterpoised with the street gang braggadocio to thrilling effect in Tonight. Bravo! Desiree Frahn in Carousel’s If I Loved You delivers an awesome transition from insouciance to love-struck that melted the lights. And again from Sweeny Todd, Nothin’s Gonna Harm You between Mat Verevis and Antoinette Halloran is full of warmth and love undercut by menacing innuendo. This was where Mat’s underplayed vocals hit the right level.
Rosie Hosking, Rachel McCall, Jessica Mills, Mark Oates, Nicholas Cannon, James Nicholson and Jeremy Tatchell all have star-turns and/or fulsome featured numbers, and they mug and move and sing marvelously in chorus work. Jessica Mills, one of the younger cast members, certainly deserves more airtime to air her voice and watchable gestures. Mark Oates is a dependable tenor in musical theatre and always draws attention. Perhaps you saw him in Adelaide Festival’s world premiere production of Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan in which he sensitively played both Ian Duncan and Don Dunstan.
The whole shebang ended with a bang with a corny and rousing Oklahoma, followed by an encore – the famous You’ll Never Walk Alone from 1945’s Carousel. You leave the theatre with goosebumps.
Unfortunately, the online program contained no biographies of the performers or creatives so despite the bright lights, the punter is in the dark about the big dreams of these talented Australians.
Director Stuart Maunder’s love letter to Sondheim and his progenitors is a delightful night out of songs from some of America’s best last-century musicals performed by outstanding Australian talent. A shame it’s only on for two nights. Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 11 and 12 Nov
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: Closed
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
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