Therry Theatre. Arts Theatre. 19 Aug 2021
If ever the legendary Ole Wiebkin created an atmospheric and powerfully detailed set, it is this one, filling The Arts Theatre stage with rough timber bunkhouse and barn and even beautiful California night scenery. Indeed, if ever a good set is well lit, it is this one by Richard Parkhill.
But, despite a diligent cast, things just did not coalesce on the opening night of this new Therry production.
Perhaps it was the script, loaded as it is with archaic American 1930s vernacular.
John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men depicts the ill-educated itinerant battlers struggling against indigency in the 1930s depression years. The actors laboured as much with the sentence structures as with the accents. Perhaps this is why Geoff Brittain, a seasoned director with a fine track record, could not push the pace of the performances in what already is a long and wordy play.
It is a heart-rending tragedy of brutality and loyalty, of yesteryear’s racism and sexism, of a harsh time when hope was as fragile as a moonbeam.
Fortunately, the gruelling sorrow of the story is conveyed and the audience cannot help but be moved, especially at the death of the one hapless female in the tale, the lonely floozy married to the boss’s bullyboy son. Spoiler alert, if there can be such a thing for an old and famous story, but, she perishes accidentally at the hands of the giant simpleton, Lennie. Therein, Ashley Bell’s death scene enactment is truly the performance highlight of the night; a bravura demise.
One gains empathy for poor Lennie through Stuart Pearce’s performance. His character's slow and basic articulation lends itself to the accent and he copes better than most. Leighton Vogt as his caring companion, George, struggles with the Americana but is good with the characterisation. Kym Clayton seems most at home as the civilised member of the brutish bunkhouse bunch on Steinbeck's hellhole ranch with Adam Schultz deliciously despicable as the horrible boss-boy, Curley.
Among the pack, John Rosen is always reliable and Robert Donnarumma , James Fazzalari support enthusiastically while Philip Lineton, screechy as poor old crippled Candy, brings the house down when he drags the huge fake sheepdog on stage with him. Newcomer to Therry is Christian Best who plays the marginalised black farm worker. It is a nice performance and, having come from Kentucky, he has no trouble at all with the accent.
Ray Trowbridge’s choice of folk music is pleasant but the loud off-stage sound effects of snorting horses is puzzling. There are a number of puzzling aspects to this production and one hopes that, as it runs into its season, everything will come together.
Samela Harris
When: 19 to 28 Aug
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
State Theatre Company. By Finegan Kruckemeyer. Dunstan Playhouse. 17 Aug 2021
Does art imitate life? Often enough it seems to do precisely that, and in Finegan Kruckemeyer’s Hibernation no sooner had he begun fleshing out an idea on how to deal with earth’s climate crisis than along came Covid-19 to indicate a way our species might tackle what seemed to him to be an existential crisis.
As a proponent of human triumph and supporter of the human spirit, I wanted Hibernation to be so much better than it was. Which is to damn with faint praise since Kruckemeyer’s latest offering is not poor, it’s just unpolished. As a play it feels unfinished; some of its strengths and weaknesses are unbalanced, some scenes too long, some over-emphasised in the scheme of things.
A thoughtful play about the way we humans are bringing about climate change, extinction, and our own destruction is never going to be easy going. In Hibernation the human race contemplates escaping our dying earth; politician Warwick Joyce (Mark Saturno) is presented with a radical plan which instead emphasises allowing the world to begin healing itself by means of an imposed hibernation, stalling all human activity for 12 months. He endorses the plan and its proponent, Emily (played by an animated Ansuya Nathan) is left embittered and uncredited.
Jonathon Oxlade’s sparse and futuristic stage design works exceptionally well as a blank canvas for the action to unfold, augmented by Video Designer Matt Byrne. His pastiches inform every scene as visual bookends. Gradually the stage itself becomes more cluttered, a metaphor perhaps for an idea increasingly difficult to sustain. Yet to my mind the hero of this production is the stirring composition of Sound Designer Andrew Howard. It is demanding and intrusive, but not overwhelming. It is contemporary and fresh, but quite recognizable in homage to a composer such as Copland.
Act 2 sees a local aspect as Adelaideans Pete and Maggie (James Smith and Elizabeth Hay) discover they cannot hibernate as a result of their medical conditions. Finding each other, they roam the city which sleeps, and in one very long scene it becomes clear that this is a story of hubris and of plans gone awry. It also illustrates a lack of poise or balance in the play overall. Nearly all of the actors (there being ten in all) are given long scenes to explore their thoughts, either by soliloquy or monologue. None are more extraordinary than that of Cassandra Flores (Rosalba Clemente) who delivers an impassioned piece from the foot of the stage… “We might breathe again without breathing” is her overwrought legacy, though I still don’t quite know why it was included.
I look forward to the development of this production; it is rich fare, both in intellect and in performance. Hibernation is a powerful new piece of work which is timely and very much of its time, and presented in grand style by State Theatre.
Alex Wheaton
When: 17 to 28 Aug
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: bass.net.au
Patch Theatre. Space Theatre. 14 Aug 2021
No-one really likes being Pollyanna and blathering on about silver linings in the time of Covid but sometimes you just have to. Take the remarkable acrobatic circus company, Gravity and other Myths (GOM). In 2020, like most arts companies, they were unable to tour, so spent the time working on the magnificent The Pulse which premiered at the Adelaide Festival of Arts earlier this year to great critical acclaim.
Geoff Cobham, Artistic Director of Patch Theatre, was the designer of that show, and has worked with Creative Director Darcy Grant on previous productions for GOM. This time, Grant came to Patch, with both companies being state bound by various restrictions, lockdowns etc.
The result of the collaborations is I Wish…, a phantasmic exploration of what it is to be, well, us.
As the audience walks into the Space, portal lights flash, allocating one of four colours to each person entering, with each person receiving a small, silhouetted figure of that colour. For the record, in our group the two adults were blue, two short people were red and two were green. No yellows!
Geoff Cobham’s magic begins immediately, with colours flashing, grabbing young attention immediately. What’s happening? Four people wander into the space; one red, one blue, one green, one yellow. Oh yeah! As their robotic movements begin, the young audience is at first unsure, then smiling, then very quickly laughing. The four show their interconnectedness with wacky dance and acrobatics; as each does their own thing, it affects the next person, and then the next. It’s a salient lesson in how the individual influences the whole.
The backdrop becomes a reflective screen, then a digital screen, as all the while Cobham’s lighting design pulses with the original beats from composer Luke Smiles. Onstage, Lisa Goldsworthy and Simon McClure (from GOM) and dancers Zoë Dunwoodie (ex Australian Dance Theatre) and Wakara Gondarra (Djuki Mala) keep it all moving, keeping the kids in the action as they’re invited to ‘throw their colour’; the red, the blue, the yellow and green hit the light sticks with unerring timing as the delighted children contribute to the show.
This generation of audience are digital natives, so the use of screens is second nature to them. But the quirky animation designs of Luku Kuku had everyone delighted as the performers appeared to change heads and torso as the screens moved down their bodies. Think Salvador Dali channelling Terry Gilliam and you’re still not there. Fantastic work!
And the title of the show? We’re back to fantasy as each cast member has ‘I wish’ turns, using the omnipresent light sabres as props. I wish I was a unicorn; I wish I could fly; I wish I was a fork lift! And no kids show is complete without a fart joke; I Wish… did not disappoint, much to the delight of the green supporters! That’s our man!
What a wonderful collaboration this is. Colourful, physical, funny yet thought provoking and providing an experience for a wide range of ages (including adults!). This production will tour to the regions after its run at the Space, and hopefully, nothing stops it from getting there. Which brings us back to Covid and the silver lining. Pollyanna much?
Arna Eyers-White
When: 14 to 28 Aug
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Little Theatre. 15 Aug 2021
It’s always time for a little cup of Coward, just to remind one that once there was polite society in which nice households had servants and everyone liked a drop of sweet sherry.
Blithe Spirit offers all that nostalgia and then some, as it throws in the pre-TV-days idea of having the local clairvoyant in to entertain with a séance.
Oddly, the Guild has chosen to frock this period piece in quasi 50s costumes and to allow the clumsy maid to look a bit scruffy. Of course, hers is a clownish role, well delivered by Ashlee Scott, and the play is a classic comedy which has been in production on stage and screen since 1941.
It depicts a writer Charles Condomine seeking background from the spirit world for his next book. To the annoyance of his second wife, Ruth, mystic Madam Arcati conjures up the ghost of his first wife, Elvira. Folly and cross-purposes ensue.
While The Little Theatre proves extremely comfortable for covid conditions, it is a bit incongruous for such a trad play. Director Megan Dansie, however, makes the best of the quaint little round space, especially in enabling the grey figure of Elvira to literally breeze through the audience.
Dansie's strength in this production is in her casting. The play is extremely ably performed. The accents and enunciations are right on the ball, if one forgives a “mischeevious” or two. Newly discovered young Emily Currie is positively breathtaking as Elvira. She is exquisitely counterpointed by seasoned hand, Jean Walker, whose Madam Arcati is spry, devious, and funny. Miriam Keane is word-perfect as the hapless second wife Ruth and Brad Martin embodies the suave central figure of Charles Condomine with panache, timing, and clarity of articulation reminiscent of the young Russell Starke. Esther Michelsen and Steve Marvanek complete the cast with adept characterisations.
This Noel Coward old-school comedy of manners is now a fairly fragile period piece. Millennial audience members may well wonder why the women are sitting around in the living room waiting for the men after dinner. While Dansie has handled the play with care in a tricky performance space, one cannot help but wish it had been possible to tighten it up with a blue pencil.
Nonetheless, the scenes of ghostly mixed messages raise the same wholesome laughs as ever they did.
Samela Harris
When: 11 to 21 Aug
Where: The Little Theatre, University of Adelaide
Bookings: trybooking.com
Independent Theatre. Goodwood Theatre. 4 Aug 2021
Independent’s artistic director, Rob Croser, has made an audacious gamble on presenting a classic Shakespeare play not only in the traditionalist ilk but also neatly cut and devoid of an interval.
This is exquisitely perceptive in this era of coronavirus restrictions and audience sensitivity. An early start, a snappy midwinter show and spacious covid seating. This is us, 2021.
Bravo.
Eschewing the fads of period re-interpretations, Croser has put Macbeth back into familiar period costuming, draping the Scots in clan sashes and allowing the actors to deliver lines in the old school of Shakespearian enunciation. From Matt Hyde in the titular role, not a word is lost, albeit many are raised in powerful emphasis. Hyde works this part with almost exhausting dedication and articulation, a bellowing ill-fated villain of desperate misunderstanding. He mellows superbly at the critical moment of that great among greatest of Shakespearean soliloquies: “It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, Full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing..”
It is a magic and memorable moment.
Also starring in this Rob Croser production is the forest of Dunsinane.
Suddenly, beyond the striking blood red diamond of the raked stage, a lush backdrop of tall trees appears as if in the dim distance. It is a stunning achievement of lighting, imagination and, indeed, of sourcing of long coniferous fronds behind which the hidden enemy slinks to the fore. Magic.
This is followed by a cacophony of period battle sounds and expertly choreographed swordsmanship.
A magnificent Croser-devised soundscape rides behind the vast tragedy of Macbeth’s doomed world, from the chirping of crickets to eerie booming presages of imminent doom.
Matt Hyde delivers a strong classic Macbeth but Rebecca Kemp rises yet higher as the malign and appalled Lady Macbeth. Amid a torrent of talented male actors, she towers.
The three witches, oddly clad in something akin to Apache fringes, are a shrill, cackling chorus rather more interesting by the Croser suggestion that they should represent three generations, mother, daughter, and granddaughter. Hence they are embodied by senior actress Pam O'Grady with Lyn Wilson and Emma Bleby.
As ever, Independent has gathered a strong amalgam of senior and newcomer actors. Seasoned Steve Turner plays a compelling Banquo whose death one mourns and whose ghostly reiterations one admires. As his son, Callum Nunn emerges as a talented teen whose own ghostly onstage expressions long may haunt audience members. Strong performances are all over the place from this cast, ever exemplified by masterful David Roach as the old king.
Independent’s success continues with Shedrick Yarkpai once again shining with the pure bright light of his considerable talent. Here, as McDuff, his emotional depth is gut-wrenching as he learns of the death of his "pretty chickens and their dam”.
Also outstanding is Eddie Sims as the young heir to the throne and, indeed also those performing as the ruthless cohort which surrounds him.
With its eloquent lighting and staged simplicity, this is Shakespeare as we know and love him.
Samela Harris
When: 31 Jul to 12 Aug
Where: Goodwood Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com