State Opera South Australia. Plant 4, Bowden. 3 Jun 2021
Love Burns is a compact chamber opera with music by Adelaide’s own Graeme Koehne and libretto by Louis Nowra. The story has its basis in fact and is inspired by the true 1940s story of Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck who were known as the Lonely Hearts Killers. Con-man Jack (played by tenor, Mark Oates) seduces and marries lonely rich widows for their money, and then kills them at the urging of his real life partner Angela (Soprano, Jessica Dean). They eventually come undone and the State of New York ‘burns’ them in the electric chair! It’s all very melodramatic and the action is very episodic with little room to explore issues and develop characters other than superficially. This is a shame because the historical characters and events make for very interesting reading, and several films have been made about the case (most recently in 2006). That said, the opera is great fun and definitely tongue-in-cheek.
Director Nicholas Cannon draws terrific performances from the all members of the cast, and the overall high quality of acting is a feature of the show. Plant 4 is not the best of venues for any seated and staged performance, and as a concert hall it makes a good shed! The acoustics are awkward, and needed the near faultless sound engineering provided by Allpro Audio to give the audience a reasonable audio experience. When at full voice in the tenser moments of the opera, Jessica Dean’s soprano voice doesn’t always come out the winner, but in quieter and more reflective moments she produces nicely rounded and sweet tones that gently fill the space. On the other hand, Mark Oates has no problems and is uniformly excellent. His acting and comic timing, and strong tenor voice is a highlight. Cherie Boogart, Rosie Hosking and Jeremy Tatchell provide excellent support in a variety of roles. Again, their fine singing and strong (almost over-the-top) acting prop up the slender storyline and give the audience much to enjoy.
Simone Romaniuk’s set is skeletal and works very well with Ben Flett’s distinctive lighting design. The execution scene is particularly effective and makes the audience immediately sit back and contemplate what has just happened! It is almost blasé and gives one cause to think about the ho-hum, here-we-go-again response the US of A displays when confronted with yet another mass shooting. The choreographed scene changes by the cast are fun, and one forgets about the often interrupted nature of the story line.
Anthony Hunt conducts a small, quality orchestra of ten and handles Koehne’s eclectic score particularly well. It is a tight performance, whilst being musical and fun.
This latest production in the State Opera’s ‘Lost Operas of Oz’ series is one of its best. More please.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Plant 4, Bowden
Bookings: Closed
SA Playwrights Theatre. The Bakehouse Theatre. 3 Jun 2021
We watch avidly the rise and rise of Alex Vickery-Howe as an Australian playwright of substance. His latest work, Watchlist, has been lurking under covers of Covid to at last be revealed as a thrill of living theatre. This is a brave, bold, agit-prop piece. It is a didacticism-enabler. It is a work of passionate, acerbic, satiric prose.
Of all things to adore in this finely-produced play, foremost is the quality of writing, the turns of phrase, the power and beauty of the mind behind it, and the wit. Diabolical one-liners pepper the script.
The play’s subtitle, “Green is the New Red”, is a shortcut to the eco-terrorism message it conveys. The plot devolves around young Basil Pepper, a bit of a loser in a world seemingly of smarter people. His mother, Marie, doesn’t hesitate to put him in his place, which, following his father’s funeral, is to live anywhere but with her. He moves in with an old friend called Roger the Knob, something of a bourgeois poseur swanning around in an oriental dressing gown. Roger sees himself as a role model and is jealous and aghast when Basil falls in with dangerous Delia, a seductive activist. Conservative Basil’s beliefs soon are deflowered and he becomes imbued with the urge to change the squalid values of this world of philistines who slaughter hapless animals in the name of a hamburger.
Around these characters skulk the shady watchers, the snooping authorities who represent the ruling world of carnivorous capitalism. They come in guises, but principally depicted as Normal Gould from ASIO who, in time-switchism throughout the play, is holding Basil accountable. There is further intrigue and unlikely layers to the plot but, principally this is a play of thoughts - big, disturbing, important thoughts, thoughts for a world destroying itself with greed and short-sighted priorities, with perversity and blithe hypocrisy. Emblematic is the thylacine and, screened on the backdrop in grainy black and white footage, is Benjamin, the last survivor of that doomed species. He is the totem of extinction rebellion. "How far would you go to save the world?", asks the play.
It all sounds rather over-earnest and evangelistic, but Vickery-Howe allows all sides to have their say and, most importantly, polishes them with satire. The play races along, albeit that it struggles slightly to find its ending.
The dark cavern of the Bakehouse Theatre is a perfect place for this production which is very smoothly directed by Lisa Harper Campbell. Scenes change swiftly and easily on an odd set which consists of a coiling trail of pine mulch over and around which the actors deftly tread and move props. Lighting and sound synchronise so well as to be unobtrusive, just part of the flow of cleverness.
As for the actors, they are word-perfect in a demanding script with each artfully defining their given characters. There is not much to criticise. Gianluca Noble, Katie O’Reilly, Katherine Sortini and Matt Hawkins. They are good. It is good. And Eddie Morrison as Roger can be really very funny.
Samela Harris
When: 3 to 12 Jun
Where: The Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: bakehousetheatre.com
Therry Theatre. Arts Theatre. 4 Jun 2021
Adelaide is coming apart with stunning non-professional productions. The Hello Girls is another one. People stood, whistled, and whooped as the cast took the curtain of The Hello Girls on Friday, and it wasn’t even opening night.
Indeed, so engaged had the audience been with the truth-based story of World War I American front-line phone operators that it cheered and applauded when one of them was pinned with a Distinguished Service Medal as part of the storyline.
Fair enough. Not only was the character fully deserving of distinction for her work in combat conditions in France but also the performer who today is embodying her on stage was doing so impeccably. The character is Grace Banker, head of the army switchboard team and the performer is Rebecca Raymond, an elegant and highly accomplished singer with the acting skills to command the stage absolutely.
The story of war-time switchboard operators rallied at the command of US General Pershing seems very unlikely for a musical but Peter Mills with wife Cara Reichel have turned it into a big, beautiful and dramatic musical. Therry’s production is its Australian premiere.
It follows Grace and her team from their enlistment in New York through to setting up phone exchanges in Paris and then in the face of fire on the western front. Unlike everyday soldiers, these professional telephone operators were lightning fast and also bi-lingual. They all had to speak French and be quick learners of code since they were to become key to communications of military movements and strategies in France.
David Lampard has devised a strong, versatile wooden set with a raised platform beneath which war action can take place. The movement of sets of stairs and props enables scene changes. It is very economical and effective.
Director Amanda Rowe has ensured not only the tight timing and high calibre of the cast but also of all the other production values: sound; choreography; costumes; hair; lighting; and, under musical director Mark DeLaine, a fabulous nine-piece band. It doesn’t get much better.
There is a very eye-catching performance from Eloise Quinn-Valentine as the perky French teenager who has lied about her age and, together with fellow operators embodied by Cassidy Gaiter, Michelle Davy and Jenny Scarce, there is just a wealth of excellent singing and well-balanced harmonies. Tenor David MacGillivray plays the American captain at first embarrassed that he is in charge of a group of women phone operators. The interactions with his charges are core to the tension of the plot and MacGillivray is heart-breakingly astute in his evocation of this development. One can feel his emotions for every moment he is onstage. Nicholas Setchell may not be gifted in American accents, but he lends size and authority as Pershing while Jared Frost, Jared Gerschwitz, and Deon Martino-Williams are absolutely sterling both as soldiers in the fearful face of terrible war and in the lighter moments of song and dance.
One hears that bookings are high for this show so the recommendation is not to hang around thinking about seeing it but to grab tickets while you can. It is a fabulous new musical and a masterful production.
Samela Harris
When: 2 to 12 Jun
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
StoreyBoard Entertainment. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 28 May 2021
It would be hard to fit more people on the stage. In this touring semi-staged version of Chess the Musical, in lieu of trucks of traditional sets, the production is performed on a raised chess board flanked by a 40-strong Elder Conservatorium choir and 25 members of the Southern Cross Symphony Orchestra.
It works.
Indeed, this production may be described as more of an aural spectacular, the orchestra rich deep, light and bright, pulsing forth the irrepressible Abba beats of Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus with the choir underlaying the singers with a magical depth of mighty sound.
As another test of the strengths of the new Her Majesty’s, it is a soaring success.
The storyline, elicited by Tim Rice’s 1980s book and lyrics, follows the fates of the Russia versus USA chess champions through political intrigue, commercial exploitation, and heartrending love. And, of course, the musical features some of the great show tunes the world has come to know and love: One Night in Bangkok, I Know Him So Well and You and I.
Clad in Dan Barber’s gorgeously tailored black and white costumes, the dance corps colours the stage with vitality, poetry, and emphasis, just beautifully choreographed by Freya List. The music is spirited and evocative, foot tapping and dramatic, and the dancers’ really make it so as very busily indeed they reflect the cultural traditions of chess-competition locations Italy and Thailand, and the nations of the two rival players.
Natalie Bassingthwaighte carries much of the emotional weight of the show as the American love interest, Florence Vassey. Her vocal power and stamina are well honed and she harmonises delightfully with Paulini when it comes to I Know Him So Well. Paulini is heralded as a rising star on the Australian musical stage and she proves it with bells on in this role as Svetlana, bringing the audience to a state of bliss as she sings Someone Else’s Story.
As directed by Tyran Parke, her errant Russian chess master husband Anatoly is given a deeply moody, smouldering presence by the splendid tenor Alexander Lewis. It is a complex role as core to the dramatic pressures of both heart and state in this politically fraught love story. But, of all the power players on the stage, it is Eddie Muliaumaseali’i as the manipulative Russian chess lord, Molokov, who possesses the musical muscle with his huge, beautiful baritone-to-bass range. Swoon.
The characters move hither and thither on the stage chessboard, pawns and rooks in the games of life and politics, Rob Mills is on steely charm offensive as the symbol of crass commercialism and Brittanie Shipway is crystal clear as the voice of the Arbiter. Mark Furze, braves the role of the boorish American loser, Trumper, with the rich tenor tones of a musical-theatre voice.
There was no standing ovation from the full house at Her Maj on Friday night, but an audience clearly happy at a big-scale show with all that solid choral and orchestral sound under David Piper’s baton.
Samela Harris
When: Closed
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Red Phoenix Theatre. Holden Street Theatres. 20 May 2021
It’s a huge, gutsy history play. It’s a landmark play. It’s an incredibly uplifting play.
It’s about women’s rights to an education, in which context it is a tale of the underclass fighting the establishment. It is about the smugly ruthless soul of the patriarchy and their way of demeaning academic women with the label of “blue stocking".
And, also, on stage at Holden Street, it is about the talent and enterprise of one Libby Drake, who has directed this deep and dark spectacular.
There’s a cast of twenty on the stage, everyone in handsome period costume and appropriate tonsorial style. There are myriad set changes, all of which are executed by the cast, swarming in quiet and swift co-ordination around the stage hauling heavy chairs and tables and erasing chalk boards in what is clearly a fairly daunting workout. Such a style of set moving is usually clunky and annoying but not so from Drake’s well-honed cast.
The success of this diligent production feat relies upon a deft and utterly precise lighting plot, which is expertly delivered by Richard Parkhill.
’Tis all tickety-boo, as they rarely say in theatre.
It is a long play which in this production does not feel long. It describes lots of concurrent themes: equality, class, love, hate, justice, ambition, suffrage and, most beautifully, as it turns out, the balance between the understandings of art versus science.
It is the first play by Jessica Swale, a rising playwright in the UK, and it has won encouragement awards and is already in the drama school syllabus and set to grow into a TV series. It depicts a group of bright, pioneering women who have made it into Girton College in Cambridge and are seeking a future as scientists and teachers, as women with the same elite education as men. Pivotal to their quest in 1896-7 is to be allowed the equality of academic graduation but this becomes entangled with the women’s suffrage movement of the times and their environment is fractured into adamant camps of pros and cons.
The story is delivered in snappy scenes, each introduced by titles written onto a large, moving blackboard. This big prop requires that all cast members can write in cursive.
The cast works as a thoroughbred ensemble but, of course, there are some outstanding performances. Brant Eustice plays the villainous, sexist psych professor with such venomous scientific bias that one can hear women throughout the audience gasping in horror. It is surprising no one has leapt onto the stage to attack him. He is brilliantly repugnant.
Bart Csorba, on the other hand, gives an eloquent depiction of the emancipated Dr. Banks and, oh, what an excellent voice he possesses. Interestingly, director Drake has cleverly gathered around her a cast of good, well-trained voices. It is another facet of the finesse of the production. Matt Chapman fits in here and also Tom Tassone, while Sebastian Skubala sings a wee folk song of exquisite beauty. Kate van der Horst leads the women as the principal student balancing the dilemma of career and love. She is a very engaging actress who draws the eye. Around her are Jasmine Leech, Laura Antoniazzi, and Rosie Williams each of whom achieves defined characterisations. Kate Anolak properly commands the stage as the wise, authoritarian Mrs Welch and is nicely balanced by the simpatico characterisation by Rebecca Kemp as Miss Blake. Jackson Barnard and James Fazzarli add fine support, as does each minor player.
It is an engrossing, intelligent, and relevant show well directed and well played.
If there are any seats left, grab one.
And, Brava, Libby Drake.
Samela Harris
When: 20 to 29 May
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: holdenstreettheatres.com