University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Little Theatre. 5 May 2018
My first viewing of Australian playwright Stephen Sewell's Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America was State Theatre's excellent production in 2003 - the first since the world premiere. I was blown away by the audacious honesty and shear bravery in tackling the issues of the erosion of American civil rights and executive sanction of torture that followed the destruction of the twin towers on 11 September 2001 (9-11) via a frighteningly plausible narrative. In an interview conducted after Myth.... and published on the Currency Press website, Sewell said, "...it was only gradually that I realised that the United States had in fact abandoned [Western values, such as the rule of law, the outlawing of torture and suchlike] decades before, and that torture centres such as the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning in Georgia, renamed after 2001 as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, had been training torturers and death squad militias for many years." Surmises like this have spread beyond the domain of rabid leftists like Sewell; few people believe it's not impossible any more.
A wonderful device used by Sewell to bring Australia into the story is to make Talbot an Australian academic in a New York university. Myth... is the title of his provocative post-9-11 thesis. For a social researcher so forward and controversial in his thinking, he would have to be the most naive person in the world to be utterly surprised about the unwanted attention his thesis attracts; Talbot is no Jordan Peterson. Talbot's protagonist is a shadowy spook bent on bringing him back into the neoconservative fold, by force if necessary. Miller's The Crucible meets Orwell's 1984, and there is even a self-reference to Kafka's The Trial in case you still don't get it.
Maybe while Sewell is Head of Writing for Performance at Sydney's National Institute for Dramatic Arts, he is reflecting on the dialogue in his wordy play of fifteen years ago. Dialogue like this made-up example:
A: "Did you go to the market?"
B: "What?"
A: "Did you go to the market?"
B: "The market?"
A: "Yes, the Central market."
B: "Why do you want to know?"
A: "I needed some bread."
B: "So, it's my fault we don't have any bread?"
Sewell's characters in this play are absolutely the worst communicators, and they are a lesson in how to escalate a difficult conversation into a hopeless confrontation - thus rendering the drama I suppose - but it's tedious when it's overdone.
Director Eric Strauts theatrically creates Sewell's exciting New York of city view apartments, intellectually stimulating university life (and cynically unhappy university life eg. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), creative writers, and even a visit to the Guggenheim. His actors are well directed into some shattering and searing scenes.
Fagan as the much abused Talbot gave us a palpable mental deterioration. His nemesis, played by Steve Marvanek, looked a bit corny in sunglasses and gloves, but overcame looks with malevolence. I have seen the work of these wonderful actors many times and they would have been better suited in traded roles. Who needs enemies when you have friends like Talbot's Max, played with Machiavellian intent by sharp actor James Black. His work in the conversations between Talbot and Max were highlights. Bravo to Yasmin Martin as the wide-eyed student. She was a terrific amalgam of 1960s idealism, new century internationalism and functional feminism. Tantalising echoes of David Mamet's 1992 Oleanna were in the drama between Talbot and Martin's Marguerite. Tim Edhouse nailed the role of the dean of Talbot's faculty. His calculations over how to deal with Talbot had a real-world glint to them. Jessica Carroll might have gotten more out of her contribution as Talbot's screenwriter wife, Eve, but Sewell took her role too many places away from the main story. The exception was that she was a great vehicle for Talbot to go on a rant about what's important in life - movie writes or human rights.
Brittany Daw's set design had a feature unseen by myself at the Little Theatre and may be a first - the use of risers to provide different floor levels to segmented acting scene areas, which was good. The red pill-shaped motifs decorating the walls reminded me of code (The Matrix) and blood; maybe they meant something else or nothing at all. Unfortunately, a lot of important and frequent action (Talbot's office, Max and Talbot) was squished into the tiny upper left portion of the acting stage which gave a few people a neck ache. The frequent use of the image of a Nazi-like eagle poised over the USAF insignia made the point of parallelism chilling. Wonderful murder mystery music (Isobel Clemow-Meyer) covered the stop-start scene changes, although transitions might have worked better.
If you think we live in dangerous times, this play is a reminder that the buffoonery of Trump is peanuts compared to the erosion of civil rights and sanction of torture that happened under Bush after 9-11. It is also a compeller to be constantly vigilant and to exercise your democratic rights. Indeed, I found the abuse of power in the play deeply saddening, more so because I don't do enough in my own backyard, like protest against all these crap apartment buildings going up in the city. My complaints about the script and production are small beer compared to the big ideas and scary possibilities explored in the play and I urge you to see it.
Heed what Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) wrote, referring to the Nazis:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
David Grybowski
When: 5 to 19 May
Where: Little Theatre, University of Adelaide
Bookings: trybooking.com
Independent Theatre. Goodwood Theatre. 27 April 2018
Born Yesterday is officially a classic American movie. Born on Boxing Day in 1950, it garnered a slew of Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Garson Kanin, who before and after the film did almost everything imaginable in screen and theatrical entertainment, said he modeled the wholly disagreeable lead male role of Harry Brock on Harry Cohn who was a big shot exec at Columbia, the production company that later made the film. Cohn said he wasn't bothered by it, which is another sign of narcissism. The Broadway play by Kanin precedes the film by four years.
The story concerns junkyard millionaire Harry Brock's trip to Washington to work with his bought lobbyist, a US Senator, to unfetter his enterprises of entangling legislation. He brought along his main squeeze, a young former chorus line girl, but realises she needs the Pygmalion treatment. So he foolishly hires a young journalist - who is also staying at the Hotel Statler - to give her some education. The natural thing happens as well as some sense being literally belted into her by Brock. It becomes the floozie's personal growth story.
The parallels between Kanin's Brock and Donald Trump were not lost on director Rob Croser. It's very easy to imagine Brock as a younger Donald Trump in the New York real estate game exercising his misogyny, bullying, and power and mind games. Stuart Pearce provided the perfect stature and characterisation to channel the President into the script. A great oaf did he give us. Yet Brock is so easily bamboozled by his moll, Billie Dawn. I haven't seen the movie, but I dare say Madeleine Herd possibly matched Judy Holliday's Academy Award-winning performance in the original film version. Her vivacity and energy was such a welcome and necessary contrast to the old men around her and to Brock's bombast. Herd's silent acting in the game of gin scene was a joy to watch, a highlight even above her humourous and charming nuance of the text and visual dexterity. Bravo! She was glamourously enhanced by Sandra Davis's stylish costuming and Carmen Ng's hair dos. Another bravo!
David Roach made playing Harry Brock's sad, old, worn out, cynical, defeated lawyer look easy, but it was theatrically nothing to behold. Greg Janzow gave Harry's go-fer cousin an intermittently amusing ennui. Jonathan Johnston as the young reporter excellently foiled the other males with ironic sense and charm.
Director Rob Croser might have snapped up the pace to keep the comedy compelling, but he had his players in the right places for dramatic import. David Roach's and Rob Croser's sets are always expertly constructed and this one was functional on many levels, but I would have argued against the Christmas-colour trim at the production meeting. Professional graphic designer Nicholas Ely's program cover was great lateral thinking and perhaps the only physical evidence of the link between then and now.
The uncanny comparison of a 1946 model of Trump is fascinating, and the switch of narrative arc onto Billie Dawn takes us into a kind of morality tale. There is a compelling battle of wills, but it's the captivating performance of Ms Herd that is required viewing.
David Grybowski
When: 27 Apr to 5 May
Where: Goodwood Theatre
Bookings: independenttheatre.org.au
The Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Arts Theatre. 26 Apr 2018
A Little Night Music is arguably one of the wittiest, most well-written and elegant musicals in the business. With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, it was inspired by an Ingmar Bergman film and a book by Hugh Wheeler. It shines as Sondheim at his best, albeit very demanding on the cast.
Pam O’Grady, with Richard Trevaskis as her sidekick, has directed the latest Adelaide production for the G&S Society and it is a delight.
She has brought an excellent, salon orchestra onto the stage which scenic artist Brian Budgen has adorned with a handsome background of towering birch trees. The chorus arrives, swishing and swaying in a lavishness of period costumes, and ostentatiously tune up their voices around the grand piano - the first clue that this musical has a touch of the tongue in cheek.
The tale unfolds of the widowed middle-aged lawyer whose vapid 18-year-old second wife remains a virgin 11 months into the marriage. He reconnects with his one-time lover, the fading stage star, Desiree, and is challenged by her pompous militaristic current lover. A comedy of marital manners and sexual mores unfolds as all the protagonists head off for a notorious Weekend in the Country.
The musical features one great hit song, Send In the Clowns, but tunes such as Night Waltz, The Glamorous Life and Weekend In the Country linger in the mind long after the curtain has fallen.
O’Grady has assembled a cast with lots of musical nous and has chosen lead players who deliver the level of acting prowess which can convey the comic nuances of hypocrisy and betrayal on which this show’s success must lie. As they say of this show, it was written for actors who can sing and not singers who can act.
Nerves were evident on the first night and the early bedroom scene is hard to play but one soon could see the cast settling into their skins and then the production was humming along in a life of its own with the audience right in the groove, catching the delicious darts of humour and responding with hearty laughter.
That’s the contenting point in a production, the sweet spot where the audience and cast meet as one, having made that connection that makes the living magic of theatre, the raison d’etre of the whole ancient art form. It makes a critic’s heart sing.
There was Robin “Smacka” Schmelzkopf as the foolish Frederik Egerman, dreaming of his lost true love while his brooding young son, gently played by William Richards, tries to practise sex with the maid while drooling over his infantile new step-mother. Schmelzkopf slips into the soul of that misguided romantic dad and plays him true to form through the cut and thrust of love lost and found and lost and found to the reward of denouement. He’s a stylish actor and an endearing singer. Come the show’s defining moment, Send In the Clowns, he underscores the sorrow and irony of it all with a lovely depth of empathy, complementing the emotion evoked by Bronwen James as she delivers that extraordinary song in the role of Desiree. She is fabulously defined as the star in decline: vivacious and audacious, sentimental and simpatico. The audience understands why men love her. They love her, too.
And they love bristling at Nicholas Bishop who braves the role of the licentious hypocrite, Count Carl-Magnus. It’s a role of stuck-up buffoonery and Bishop, of the beautiful baritone voice, plays it to the hilt. Has the man ever turned in a half-hearted performance? One thinks not.
Ah, and there is Deborah Caddy as his elegant and long-suffering wife, Countess Charlotte. Caddy’s professionalism and her powerful stage presence are stand-out. She sings to suit and, oh, plays irony with a capital “I”. She’s another joy in the wonderful casting of this show.
But there’s more.
Norma Knight plays the crusty old matriarch, Madame Armfeldt. From a wheelchair she resonates like a latterday Bette Davis. She’s wise and facetious, and as she comes to the song, Every Day a Little Death, audience members find themselves holding their breath.
And going from the elderly of this Norwegian family to the youngest, there is also Frederika Armfeldt. Henny Walters has been a popular nominee for best emerging actress awards and here with her crystalline fresh voice she works true to the high standard that attracted such acclaim and doubtless will garner more.
As the ingenue bride, Anne, lovely Emmeline Whitehead is delightful to behold but in this difficult role of simpering silliness, she has taken something of shrill tumble over the vocal top. A spot of direction would soften those twittering high registers.
Amid the chorus, Vanessa Lee Shirley shines and is hilarious with James Nicholson, Josine Talbot, Monique Watson, Laurence Croft, and Macintyre Howie Reeves in sterling vocal and physical support. Megan Doherty plays the maid, Petra, and holds the house to ransom as she delivers the overly long and difficult solo, The Miller’s Son.
Christine Hodgen and her lovely orchestra are just there on the stage throughout, mellow and well-balanced against the vocals and with an aesthetic of their own.
And thus does the G&S have another hit show on its hands.
Now to get the word out and fill the houses, for it is a fabulous night’s entertainment.
Samela Harris
When: 26 Apr to 5 May
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: gandssa.com.au
Hills Musical Company. Stirling Community Theatre. 20 Apr 2018
The story may be tragic, but the production is not.
Hills Musical Company has thrown a massive and extremely weird-looking cast upon their little Community Theatre stage. Call it freakish, for indeed that was the old buzzword and the theme of the show. The denizens of the old-school travelling side show were indeed society's oddballs and outcasts.
The conjoined Hilton twins, Daisy and Violet, were the superstars of the variety show genres of the 1900s. They were joined at the hips and, although they shared no organs, their shared blood vessels made separation very risky under the medicine of the day. So, despite being mercilessly exploited and ill-treated by family and managers through what was to become a headlining showbiz career, they vowed always to stay together by choice as well as necessity.
Hence, the one great I Will Never Leave You anthem of this musical show, devised in the 1990s around the life and times of the twins by Bill Russell and Henry Krieger.
Despite its colourful content, this tribute show is rarely performed, not only because of the difficulty of finding matching singers to play the twins but, one concludes, because the music doesn’t really hold up. It is very demanding of the singers and it is devoid of memorable tunes.
This said, the HMC’s orchestra under conductor Mark DeLaine is absolutely stunning; strings and wind sublimely balanced and a pleasure on the ear.
Indeed, with direction from Amanda Rowe, the production itself is slick and schmick with the very able cast well-rehearsed and focused. Similarly classy are the costumes which have to depict the assorted sideshow characters from lizard man to half-man-half-woman. They swarm and mass across the stage, a cast ranging beanpole tall to utterly diminutive, from dog hairy to billiard ball smooth; a vast parade of vivid diversity in a set which transforms from tent flaps to vaudevillian glamour and a few other things in between. Designer David Lampard had the crew busy moving large wooden frames into austere compositions to represent the evolving scenes as the girls’ lives progressed from cruel side show subjugation to mere showbiz exploitation. The girls might have been talented singers with defined personalities, but they were always the ingénues under the control of one or other manager or producer.
HMC scored brilliantly in casting Scott Nell as the first of these, the ruthlessly Cockney carny called Sir. In voice and characterisation, Nell gives a powerful performance. He is followed by an opportunistic song and dance talent scout called Terry who, with his gay mate, Buddy, woos the girls away from the freak show and onto the main stage where they are to become glamorous stars of the day.
Paul Rodda, something of a song and dance man in his own right, embodies Terry and does so with a professional polish which is the talk of the foyer at interval. It is a finely nuanced performance.
Meanwhile, as the sidekick Buddy, Jared Frost is exceptionally engaging in both characterisation and song.
There’s some terrific singing coming from stage, all powered by mikes so the rafters sometimes ring. A few cast members use their acting skills to cover for the challenges of the difficult musical score.
Not so the two principals, Rebecca Raymond and Fiona DeLaine as Violet and Daisy, the hapless conjoined twins. They’re superior singers, both. They move well together with their costumes joined at the hips. They harmonise exquisitely and they each assert credible and interesting characters who elicit audience sympathy.
Thus, with its torrent of complex musical numbers and some neat choreography, the show flies along at a good pace, albeit some of the songs are a bit long. There are more stand-out performances, not the least of them Ray Cullen as Houdini and others.
Wendy Rayner, Jared Gershwitz, Elle Nichelle, Alana Shepherdson, Cassidy Roberts, Shelley Crooks and, of course, Omkar Nagesh as the girls’ dear friend and protector, all merit mention and the list could go on: the dancing girls, for instance and the male ensemble in its moment.
There is a mass of life and light and bright talent in this great, big, offbeat show. It is definitely worth a night in the Hills.
Samela Harris
When: 20 Apr to 5 May
Where: Stirling Community Theatre
Bookings: hillsmusical.org.au/tickets
Editors Note: Paul Rodda, who plays Terry Connor in the show, is also the Editor of The Barefoot Review.
Windmill Theatre. Space Theatre. 14 April 2018
The Grug team are back in Adelaide after numerous successful tours locally and internationally. This gorgeous show garners rave reviews and repeat audiences where ever it goes, and with very good reason.
Combining a number of the picture books from Ted Prior's much-loved series, the piece is built around the title story 'Grug and the Rainbow'. Starting with his provenance after toppling from a Burrawang tree, we see Grug build his burrow and glimpse his first rainbow. After sadly failing to catch the rainbow, despite much effort, Grug's mission is to find a rainbow of his very own.
The plays three narrating puppeteers break through the fourth wall and excitedly decide that we should all help Grug to find the colours he needs. This fun and educational twist sees director Sam Haren weave in characters and storylines from other popular Grug books, including his adventures painting a house, visiting the beach and learning to ride a bike. The stories and the audience themselves provide the source for each new rainbow hue.
This show is a wonderful stage adaptation that breathes life into Prior's endearing and inquisitive treetop character. It is also one of the few truly brilliant theatre pieces for toddlers and preschool children.
The three performers are well cast and add much to production without upstaging the main event. Hamish Fletcher, Ezra Juanta and Astrid Pill are warm and friendly on stage and coordinate seamlessly between the numerous puppets. Juanta is a particular stand out, with his larger-than-life stage personality making him a fast favourite with the thigh-high contingent of the audience.
Jonathon Oxlade's small but delightfully intricate and versatile set is a joy to experience, and Tamara Rewse's Grug is just perfect.
This is a show for anyone, of any age, and if you've seen it before then treat yourself again. It's just as good the second time around.
Nicole Russo
When: 10 to 22 Apr 2018
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au