State Opera of South Australia. Adelaide Town Hall. 30 Aug 2017
With the Festival Theatre being off-limits for (much needed) renovations, and for the lack of suitable venues to mount full main-stage operas, the State Opera of South Australia instead staged two one-act operas in (mostly) concert format in the pleasing acoustic of the Adelaide Town Hall.
It is a most enjoyable program, but it is definitely an evening of two halves.
La Vide Breve, with music by Manuel de Falla and Spanish libretto by Carlos Fernández-Shaw, is the story of an arranged marriage between Paco and Carmela, but Paco is in love with Salud, a common gypsy girl who despairingly takes her own life because she is denied Paco. The passion of the young lovers is made palpably evident through the beautifully played music and the well-sung arias, but the production lacks a true sense of theatre, and the gravitas of the plot is subjugated by the staging.
Director Nicholas Cannon, through necessity, staged the production largely in concert formation. The limited space of the wide and narrow thrust stage situated in front of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra accommodates the State Opera Chorus as well as the cast and various basic items of stage properties. The whole thing is cramped and lacks a sense of intimacy and seclusion that is often required. Pelham Andrews is a standout as Tio Saravor. His rich bass-baritone voice resonates throughout the auditorium and is never intimidated by the force of the orchestra, unlike Brenton Spiteri, whose excellent tenor voice is at times drowned out by what is essentially an over-powered orchestra.
The displays of flamenco dancing and singing provide interesting contrast. Gisele Blanchard sings a convincing Salud, and Elizabeth Campbell is deeply emotional as Abuela.
Gianni Schicchi is an altogether different proposition, and the evening suddenly takes off! Puccini’s score is emotive, lush, and contains the ever-popular aria O mio babbino caro. (One can sense the audience patiently waiting for it!) The Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, is based in part on Dante's Divine Comedy and is fabulously comical. In short, it concerns the antics of a bunch of relatives who are over-excited about not receiving an inheritance and who conspire to fraudulently alter the will so that they do not miss out.
Director Douglas McNicol exploits every opportunity to extract laughter and his cast is completely up to the task; their acting skills are polished – facial gesturing in particular is exemplary. Elizabeth Campbell gives an object lesson in how to create a truly three-dimensional character that only comes through a deep understanding of one’s relationship with the other characters as well as the time, place and social milieu in which the action is located. It was difficult to take one’s eyes away from her.
McNicol chose to set the action into a contemporary setting, and it works well. Sadly, there are many examples where modernising a setting simply doesn’t work. For example, I recall without fondness Gale Edward’s attempt to give contemporary relevance to Salomé in her 2013 production for SOSA by setting it in a slaughterhouse. The quality of the music and the singing was overshadowed by an execrably bad design concept. This reviewer can’t help wonder what new heights of enjoyment might be achieved if the creatives, in their attempts to modernise, went that extra step further and judiciously altered the libretto as well to remove what ultimately become anachronisms if left unaltered. However……..
Desiree Frahn again demonstrates that she has a bright future as a singer, and her rendition of O mio babbino caro is just delightful: a crystal clear pitch-perfect voice, with no unnecessary vibrato. Brenton Spiteri is a delight as Rinuccio, and his sweet tenor line this time incisively cut through the combined might of the orchestra. Conductor Brian Castles-Onion also seems to have a more refined sympatico with the vocalists in Gianni Schicchi than in La Vide Breve, which helps. McNicol also stars in the title role, and his skills at farcical acting are well on display. Jeremy Tatchell sings and acts the role of Marco with his usual aplomb.
The strong principal casts are well rounded out by convincing performances from, David Cox, Daniel Goodburn, Norbert Hohl, Greg John, Rodney Kirk, Sara Lambert, Fiona McArdle, Rachel McCall, Joshua Rowe, and Beau Sandford.
SOSA’s next production will be Johann Strauss Jnr’s Die Fledermaus to be staged at her majesty’s Theatre on 24 & 25 Oct 2017.
Kym Clayton
When: 30 & 31 Aug
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Bonython Park. Spiegel Big Tent. 18 Aug 2017
Infamous is a breath of fresh air to regular circus fare.
Described as a cross between Cirque de Soleil and fringe show, La Soiree, Infamous attempts to strike a balance between cabaret performance - singing, dancing, burlesque, and comedy – and circus – acrobatics, death-defying stunts, aerialists, and strongmen.
The troupe is comprised of a famous family of circus performers, a team of dancing girls, a singer, a clown, jugglers, and contortionists. They are all highly talented performers in their own right, but it would be fair to say that some shine brighter than others.
As an overall production, Infamous is highly entertaining, but the ‘balance’ is not always there (no pun intended). A series of heart-stopping tricks on the wheel of death would be a tough act for anyone to follow!
In the circus elements, this show really hits its straps. The performers are clearly world class, and the audience are perched on the edge of their seats. It is exactly what the circus intended.
During the cabaret numbers, however, one’s attention drifts, production elements are lacking, and the buzz created by the preceding circus number slowly dies away. This is the result of a lack of pace, poorly focussed lighting, and generally low sound quality (especially for musical numbers).
The cabaret seating is a stroke of genius and gets much of the audience up close and personal to the action. Serving drinks throughout the show is a distraction however, constantly breaking our focus on the action as attendants come and go taking orders and delivering goods.
It is a show that needs the heavy editing of a director; but one with loads of potential to soar. The production elements of its big brothers in Cirque de Soleil and La Soiree are what make these shows so engrossing and memorable.
Infamous is an entertaining evening of spectacular circus with some enjoyable cabaret and gorgeous bodies on display – with a few tweaks it could be truly infamous.
Paul Rodda
When: 18 Aug to 10 Sep
Where: Bonython Park, Adelaide
Bookings: events.ticketbooth.com.au
Sydney Dance Company. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 17 August 2017
Look for details informing the evening’s double bill and you find a tale of new breed greatness paired with a mature master’s work.
Gabrielle Nankivell’s intensely rich, deeply primal Wildebeest was commissioned by Sydney Dance Company’s 2014 New Breed season. In 2015, she was awarded the Tanja Liedtke Foundation award.
Opening night marked the 10th Anniversary of Liedtke’s death. So it was quite fitting Nankivell’s work was performed. Rafael Bonachela’s Frame of Mind scooped the 2015 Helpmann Awards for dance; best choreography, best dance work, best male dancer and best female dancer.
Instinct and knowledge are words Nankivell uses to describe the core to her Wildebeest. The work choreographically sears with animal primality blended with mythological ritual.
Almost every move originates directly from body joints - knees, elbows, knuckles - from which the limbs take their cue in bringing to life what is animal, powerful, fast, dangerous, wild, strong, and graceful.
Whether in solo or ensemble performance, the presence of the beast in fight or flight is utterly clear. Fiona Holley’s loose tunic costumes in gradations of dark to light soil colours and Benjamin Cisterne’s low level lighting with subtle white lightning flashes enhance the sense of animal chaos.
Surprisingly then, perhaps not, there’s a shift from wildness to a lemon hue lit phrase. Composer Luke Smiles offers up a delicious series of hoof like beats to which the ensemble matches with hands and arms as two dancers come together to form a living statue, then other dancers. Their arms and hands clapping together in time with beat.
It’s a mythic, religious soulfulness matching the animal wildness. Given the primal nature of the work, it’s easy to see this phrase of the work as a primitive human response to a feared power, worship it to understand it.
Frame of Mind is a very clever piece. Rafael Bonachela wanted to explore that desire to be in two places at once. He achieves this beautifully by mixing phrases of ensemble work with a duet. Designer Ralf Meyers and Lighting Designer Benjamin Cisterne provide Bonachela with a red curtained quarter square which is yellow lit for ensemble work and goes dark with faint front white wash lighting for the duet.
Where’s the clever? In the psychology informing the dance. Wonderfully, it’s not so much the dance that’s going on in the red corner that’s important. Oh no, it’s that male dancer and female dancer who don’t seem to be doing much. It takes a while to cotton onto it. She stands by the red curtain wall, watching. He slips in and out of the dance with the ensemble which is clearly under his direction. He’s half there, half elsewhere.
This terrific tension established so quietly between the male and female is given much more complex expression in the series of duets interpolated between the ensemble phrases. Only in these phrases is there a sense of unity, completeness and being at one in the moment. The choreography is gloriously intense, filled with ardent, passionately executed leaps, lifts and turns in which there’s an unrestrained freedom and joy between the two that is restricted when these two are in ‘real now time’. In the red corner with the ensemble.
Only when the first duet has occurred does attention turn to what is actually going on choreographically in the red corner space. It’s fantastic; filled with hard work and thrilling dance worthy of applause on its own. But it’s not personal. It isn’t intimate. It’s controlled and dependent for success on all dancers conforming to its dictates. Hence the tension tucked away between two dancers who would rather be somewhere else, and still get the work done.
David O’Brien
When: 17 to 19 August
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Star Theatres. Peter Maddern. 19 Jul 2017
Walking the Kokoda Trail has become something of a fitness-vacation fashion, one which defeats a few people and is a revelation to most. Here is a play which should be compulsory viewing for all those intending to go. It is an intense dip into the wartime world it once was and the reason its name now has such renown.
Peter Maddern has created a stereotypical young Aussie soldier who found himself in New Guinea as a “Chocko” or “chocolate soldier”, which label denoted the barely trained innocents who were late into action in WWII. Todd Grey portrays the young Private Morris Powell delivering a highly credible character; a classic, ingenuous ocker bloke with a broad accent and a voice more typical of the footy outer than the stage. It’s a huge script in which a series of wartime actions are embodied as well as a potted history of the whole interaction with the Japanese and some of the politics of the field, and a sense of the acquisition of wisdom by the character himself. It is a torrent of dialogue. Grey gives it light and dark, pace, tension, drama, and intimacy.
For one man alone on a small stage, it could have seemed an overly complex monologue but the writer, Maddern, also has directed the work and has seen that not only are there costume changes and one large rock-style prop to give the performer a sense of time and scene, but that his assorted frays of one-sided combat action are embellished by excellent sound and lighting.
Josh Williams’ soundscape is simply superb - from the jungle chatter of birds and weather to the percussion of weaponry and the sound of voices close and far from all directions. He peoples the theatre with invisibles. With Zac Eichner’s dramatic lighting and a haze of smoke, muddy mountaintop and frantic combat all feel real.
The narrative is rapid-fire and fact-filled. It’s a lot to take in. Occasionally time and place are projected through lights fanned out in the smoke effects.
It is not the easiest night in the theatre. It is not an easy story. But it is an important one in Australian history. It marks a crucial early defeat of the Japanese and it portrays a too-often overlooked saga of a mob of Aussie men who defended this country, but rarely ever told the gruelling tale.
One might suggest playwright Maddern cuts the early comparison to a then and now of Melbourne suburbs from the script and also the word “clusterf@!k” which was born of Vietnam. These anachronisms stand out like banners of distraction. But, otherwise, bravo!
Samela Harris
When: 19 Jul to 5 Aug
Where: Star Theatres
Bookings: trybooking.com
Bakehouse Theatre Company. Bakehouse Theatre. 8 Jul 2017
Stepping into the Bakehouse Theatre, the senses are surprised by the subtle and wonderful fragrance of ginger and lemongrass. Good heavens, the cramped little Chinese restaurant kitchen set is near-as-dammit, a functioning kitchen complete with fresh herbs and tossed noodles.
But there is not an Asian face to be seen in its busy staff of five.
This is a play in which all the rules are bent. It is not a case of blind casting. Playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig intended Caucasian actors to play the parts: Asians, Europeans, and even anthropomorphic insects.
It is a wild ride of drama skills.
Consequently, it is a short and intense play with narrative and character threads weaving all over the place. Central is the kitchen of the Golden Dragon, a Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese restaurant with a huge menu. The cooks go like the hammers, calling out the ingredients while working over woks and loading take-away containers. Above the restaurant live two air hostesses who come in to eat after a long flight home. Also in the building lives the owner of a convenience store in a clutter of stockpiled goods, an older couple on an emotional downward spiral and a young couple dealing with an unexpected pregnancy.
The primary storyline takes place in the kitchen wherein the newest worker is a young illegal immigrant in agony with toothache. His pain is shared with the audience through the grating volume and intensity of his howling and yowling. Oh, is it so strident. The audience gets the message. The busy kitchen staff does, too, since they can’t hush him. The illegality of the poor lad denies him rights to formal treatment, so the cooks take it upon themselves to identify the tooth and, eventually, extract it, all the while keeping the furious cooking and serving going on around him. It is painfully funny. The force of the improvised extraction by spanner throws tooth high into the air. The world waits in dread. Yes, into the wok it goes. But the cook flicks it out and it flies again. Oh, no! It plops into the hot soup being carried out to one of the beautiful air hostesses.
Her response to it is surprising. But so are most elements of this intriguing little play. The beautiful blonde hostess has an older lover who calls her Barbie Doll. She seems fine with this. Meanwhile, further dramas play out between the other characters in the building. They are vignettes of real life and yet one must suspend disbelief. The building is a hothouse not only of humble humanity but of insects. Like allegorical creatures from Monkey Magic, there also lives an ant with her bountiful stockpile of stored food and a beautiful cricket who has no provisions because she has frittered away her life singing. She begs the ant to share. The ant enslaves her and humiliates her in a downward spiral of unthinkable cruelty.
These two creatures pop in and out of the action with their own episodic narrative. They are beautifully rendered simply with chopstick props as antennae.
Indeed, the presentation and performances of this quirky theatrical experience are uniformly good - as one may expect under Joh Hartog’s direction. Jo Pugh, Brendan Cooney, Mark Healy, Clare Mansfield and Robbie Greenwell complete the able and versatile cast, darting seamlessly from role to role.
Tech and lighting are good, but if there is a star in the show, it is Tammy Boden’s sweaty and claustrophobic little kitchen set with its wafts of food fragrance.
The audience emerges from the theatre, heads spinning with ways in which to interpret what they have seen.
Like a fine Chinese meal, there are many interesting ingredients and, left to digest them for a while, one realises that it has been surprisingly satisfying. So long as one does not worry about the tooth, it leaves a rather pleasant taste in the mouth.
Samela Harris
When: 8 to 22 Jul
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: bakehousetheatre.com