Sunday 1 December 1996

1996 Reviews by Kate Herbert, Herald Sun


1996 Reviews by Kate Herbert, Herald Sun

The following are all reviews published in Herald Sun during 1996. They are still available through www.newstext.com.au

They will all be uploaded in full soon.  KH

 LOVE ON THE RUN   Herald Sun, 07-12-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 081, 421 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Passionate feelings can be a hit and myth affair, writes KATE HERBERT IN the end, Tristan and Yseult die the death they should have died in the beginning: suicide for the lost love. Truth and passion don't rule the world; power, history and comfort d...

   THE PAIN GAME   Herald Sun, 06-12-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 085, 342 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Double or Nothing Presented by: $5 Theatre Where and when: Napier St Theatre until December 15 IT'S funny how official and government bodies are now calling gambling "gaming". By simply dropping a couple of letters we lose the disease, the social ill...

   A TALE OF TWO CITIES, REAL AND IMAGINED   Herald Sun, 04-12-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 055, 444 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Little City Melbourne Worker's Theatre Where and when: Brunswick Town Hall until December 15. WE SEEM to be entering a period of consciousness-raising theatre, and Little City, by the Melbourne Workers Theatre, is in the vanguard. Of course, the need...

    HUMOR SHEDS LIGHT ON LIFE   Herald Sun, 03-12-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 043, 325 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
REVIEW theatre Mr Melancholy A HERMITAGE a trois is one way of describing the characters in this absurd comedy. It features three hermits with varying degrees of sociability who live together in a lighthouse without light. Ollie (Wayne Hope), the lig...

    JOINING FORCES IN SEXUALITY   Herald Sun, 03-12-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 045, 289 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
REVIEW theatre Mind's Eye Where and when: Lonsdale St Power Station until Saturday THEATRICAL collaborations can produce new and wonderfully unpredictable ideas or they may breed only conflict. Back to Back, a company for intellectually disabled acto...

    GROWING OLD WITH SHAME   Herald Sun, 29-11-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 085, 204 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
REVIEW theatre Old People The Great Divide Writer: Tony Reck Where: VCA Drama School THE aged are often believed to live in their pasts in a non-sexual haze of heart drugs, tea and toast. The two oldies in Alex Green's short work, Old People, are no ...

   TAKING THE RUFUS WITH THE SMOOTH   Herald Sun, 27-11-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 050, 308 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
The Mysteries of Rufus Bummings Where and when: Polyglot until November 30 DROP some letters from Ruffhouse Burmingsley Rufus Manufacturings, stamped on the wooden soldier's back, and you are left with Rufus Bummings. Rufus, the title character of Ch...

    REIGN UP IN CLOUDS   Herald Sun, 25-11-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 055, 328 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Kelly's Reign WHEN writing The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov purposely placed the railway station eight kilometres away so that his naturalistic director Stanislavski, could not use train sound effects. It is a pity Chekhov was not dramaturg for Kell...

    ACTS OF TEENAGE DRAMA   Herald Sun, 23-11-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 079, 288 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Monash Schools Drama Competition Monash Performing Arts Theatre The festival, sponsored by Monash University Arts Precinct, attracted students from 16 schools, both private and government. They were judged on their creativity, use of the theatre spac...

    TOM'S CHANTS   Herald Sun, 20-11-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 059, 365 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Thumbul by Tom E. Lewis & Mac Gudgeon When and where: Gasworks until December 30 T HERE'S no denying it, Tom E. Lewis is charming. His autobiographical show, Thumbul, is a perfect vehicle for his entertaining and often poignant solo journey through h...

   ACTORS BREATHE LIFE INTO SNORKEL   Herald Sun, 16-11-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 070, 183 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Snorkel Where & when: La Mama until Dec 1 INCEST, patricide, fratricide: not a cheery piece is Richard Bladel's Snorkel. But it is briskly directed by Ariette Taylor and stylishly performed by Belinda McClory and David Pidd. The small space at La Mam...

    A CHURCH'S FATE   Herald Sun, 08-11-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 079, 358 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Sanctus Where and when: Merlyn Theatre performed by Ballarat University until tomorrow C HRIS Dickins is a gem of a playwright whose plays continue to appear in country Victoria productions. The latest, Sanctus, is the graduate production for perform...

   SHALLOW DIG AT A GRAVE ISSUE   Herald Sun, 30-10-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 057, 373 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
The Mourning After Where and when: Playbox, until November 23 IF you have never experienced the death of someone close, it is impossible to explain the odd actions and reactions grief may cause. For example, why would a woman whose husband has died t...

   POLLIE'S POSER   Herald Sun, 26-10-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 077, 382 words , ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Alive at Williamstown Pier Where and when: La Mama; until November 11 THE combination of politician and mental illness is evidently a sure-fire entertainment drawcard. La Mama was stuffed to the rafters even on the second, notoriously quiet night of ...

   YANG'S YEARNING   Herald Sun, 24-10-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 057, 371 words , HIT
The North Where and when: George Ballroom, St Kilda; until November 2 T HERE is something harmonic in William Yang's The North - and it's not only because of the eccentric musical accompaniment. Yang's voice is not resonant but its unaffected quality...

    CHI'S BRAN NUE WAY   Herald Sun, 19-10-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 077, 304 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Corrugation Road Where and when: Fairfax Studio until October 26 S HEER anarchy was let loose on an unsuspecting audience on opening night of Corrugation Road. Jimmy Chi, who also wrote Bran Nue Dae, flies in the face of musical theatre convention. H...

    A REAL FAIRYTALE OF THE HEART   Herald Sun, 18-10-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 092, 250 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Corazon Where & when: Theatreworks until tomorrow KATE Herbert describes Corazon as a Gothic fairytale, and it is a nightmarish fantasy. It's a cross between the Addams Family and Mervyn Peake, with grisly goings-on that make a Verdi opera plotline l...

   TAKE A GIANT JUMP FOR JOY   Herald Sun, 09-10-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 061, 374 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Jump! By: Crying in Public Places When and where: Beckett Theatre until Saturday WHEN my mouth falls open I know I've seen a good show - and I gaped all the way through Jump! again. Crying in Public Places grabs you by the heart, lungs and soul from ...

   KING OF THE YARN-SPINNERS   Herald Sun, 08-10-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 045, 315 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Blimey! It's Matt King Where: Star and Garter Hotel, South Melbourne When: Wednesday-Saturday, until October 19 IT'S been a while since I was at a pub comedy gig. Aah! My misspent youth!...

   PRIMITIVE TALE LACKS A BIT OF SPARK   Herald Sun, 07-10-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 047, 355 words , ENTERTAINMENT
FRINGE THEATRE Kaspar Where and when: The Vault Theatre, Banana Alley Flinders St; until October 19 "CIVILISED" cultures have always had a fascination with the barbaric. Unfortunately, this romance with the "savage" has often manifested itself in gro...  


 BARD'S KNIFE-EDGE SLICE OF LIFE   Herald Sun, 05-10-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 035, 372 words , ENTERTAINMENT
The Rape of Lucrece Where and When: La Mama, until October 20 POURING a play into the confines of La Mama Theatre in Carlton is no mean feat at the best of times, but when it is Shakespeare it is nigh on miraculous. Of course, performing a mythic poe..

.    THE FUN'S ON FOR YOUNG AND OLD   Herald Sun, 27-09-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 083, 397 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Schnorky the Wave Puncher THERE'S no denying it - kids' theatre can be great entertainment for adults too and Schnorky the Wave Puncher at the Arena Theatre is a good example. The laughs rippled up from the shoreline of children seated on mats and ro...

    MARG'S STORY A DEAD-SET HOOT   Herald Sun, 27-09-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 085, 360 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Not Dead Yet - The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole Where and When: La Mama at The Courthouse until October 12 L OTTIE Lyell may not have had a movie house named after her, as film-making lover Raymond Longford has, but Sarah Vincent and Vanessa ...

   BLOODY TAPESTRY OF WAR'S TRUE PAIN   Herald Sun, 24-09-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 041, 339 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Because You Are Mine Where and when: Melbourne University Student Theatre at Guild Theatre; until October 5 INVARIABLY, before a war, there is a period during which there is the hope that possibly there will be no conflict. Before the horror and desp...

    CIRCUS EXPOSES BODY AND SOUL   Herald Sun, 14-09-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 035, 372 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Aqua Profonda Presented by: Circus Oz Where and when: Melbourne Town Hall; until October 6 E VER seen a nearly naked man play 80 squeezy horns with body parts? Well, go and see Circus Oz. When circus meets the bizarre, the witty and the political the...

   A GAG-FEST FROM THE BARD   Herald Sun, 10-09-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 045, 347 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Love's Labour's Lost Where and when: Beckett Theatre, Malthouse, until Saturday LOVE'S Labour's Lost is simple comic-romance fluff with little substance, which is probably why it is rarely done. The Victorian College of the Arts production, directed ...

    NEW FACES, OLD STORY   Herald Sun, 09-09-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 061, 348 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Chay Vong Vong Where and when: Napier St Theatre: until September 15 WE should despair that each cultural group which arrives in Australia as migrants suffers frighteningly similar troubles. The Vietnamese characters in Tony Le Nguyen's play, Chay Vo...

    STAND TALL TO DELIVER   Herald Sun, 27-08-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 045, 268 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Home Brew Last Laugh Theatre Restaurant PETER Rowsthorn has been doing stand-up comedy around town for about 10 years and he's still funny, even when he is doing old material. It's his physical humor that makes him stand out. Rowsthorn conjures Austr...

    STREETS AHEAD   Herald Sun, 17-08-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 041, 411 words , ENTERTAINMENT
REVIEW comedy Wrung Out! Glynn Nicholas Where and when: Comedy Theatre; from August 15 GLYNN Nicholas certainly knows how to work a crowd. All those years doing classical mime on the streets of Adelaide and Paris paid off. Once a busker, always a cha...

    STALKING THE NIGHT FOR KICKS   Herald Sun, 12-08-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 070, 314 words , ENTERTAINMENT
theatre Strangers in the Night Where and when: Playbox Theatre until August 31 LOWER West Manhattan feels like Blade Runner dubbed into several foreign languages: incomprehensible, bleak, dangerous, poorly but stylishly lit. Everybody in the subways ...

   INTRODUCING PIOTR THE GRATE   Herald Sun, 06-08-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 063, 382 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Maestro Where and when: Courthouse until August 17 THERE is a clause in small print at the bottom of every artist's contract with the devil which declares, "Create great art and be a tortured soul ". Piotr Tchaikovsky was no exception. Geoffrey Willi...

   ROCKY ROAD TO UNDERSTANDING   Herald Sun, 03-08-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 027, 325 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Road Movie Presented by: Back to Back and Melbourne Workers' Theatre Where and when: Lonsdale St Power Station until August 10 THE road movie genre is a modern version of the mythic Hero's Journey, in which the hero leaves a secure environment, takes...

    BLURRED REALITY HITS HOME   Herald Sun, 02-08-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 099, 327 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Sextet Where and when: Napier St Theatre until August 18 LEONARD Radic's Sextet, which he vows is not autobiographical, draws on his years as The Age critic and observations of the theatre industry and its creatures. It is directed by Malcolm Roberts...

   DEVOTION TO CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL   Herald Sun, 31-07-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 065, 356 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Kafka's Dick Where and when: Athenaeum Theatre until August 18 ALAN Bennett's play Kafka's Dick is no euphemism but a reference to Czech novelist Franz Kafka's penis. An odd topic? Evidently Kafka's was tiny and, for a man with a psychotically distor...

   CAR-ING APPROACH   Herald Sun, 20-07-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 033, 238 words , ENTERTAINMENT
The Brand New Ford The four members of this eccentric stage family prattle at each other in rich, complex and allusive phrases. The play's starting gate is cars - grotesque V8s and other revving, noisy, petrol-guzzling motors. Dad (Jim Daly) talks li...

   GRIM TALE OF LOSS BY FIRE   Herald Sun, 17-07-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 057, 373 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Hearts of Fire Where and when: Carlton Courthouse Theatre, 349 Drummond St; until July 27 BUSHFIRES are in many ways an intrinsic part of Australian identity. They are the horrific flipside to footy and Vegemite, a quintessentially Australian phenome...

   FIRED BY BURNING DESIRE   Herald Sun, 04-07-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 062, 444 words , HIT
THE effects of the Ash Wednesday bushfires continued long after the final flames were extinguished in 1983. Psychological scars still smoulder in the minds of fire-fighters and victims who lost their homes. In Kate Herbert's latest play, Hearts of Fi...  

  SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES   Herald Sun, 11-06-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 053, 392 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Easy to Say Where and when: La Mama until June 25 AN ORDINARY life can be so strange if examined too closely. Kevin Nemeth's latest play draws us into the orbit of several people related by family or friendship. Both the naturalistic style and the in...

    SCARE WAY TO HEAVEN   Herald Sun, 10-06-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 067, 320 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Autopsy In fact, for this writer, who has nightmares after The X Files, the lurid computer graphics of a dissected body were most unsettling. The show is like an 80-minute video clip with substantial content and welcome irony. It opens with pounding ...

   BARBS FOR BARD   Herald Sun, 07-06-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 096, 363 words , ENTERTAINMENT
REVIEW theatre William Shakespeare: Hung, Drawn and Quartered Not Yet It's Difficult Where and When: IRAA, 14 Lowther St, Alphington; until tonight IT IS peculiar that Anglophiles have elevated a very dead white male, notwithstanding his exceptional ...  


 IN SEVENTH HEAVEN OF DEATH   Herald Sun, 31-05-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 090, 311 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Seven Stages of Grieving Working under the umbrella of Brisbane-based Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts (supported by ATSIC, Arts Queensland and the Australia Council), director Wesley Enoch, with co-writer and solo performer Debra Mailman, d...  
 

HSUN0596.SRC.011   Herald Sun, 28-05-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 045, 521 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Rocky Jason Show JASON Donovan is planning his Australian stage debut. He will play Frank 'N' Furter in the Rocky Horror Show when it opens in Perth next month. "People don't realise he has not been on stage in Australia," promoter Paul Dainty says. ...

   COLLEGE RAISES HOUSE COLORS   Herald Sun, 28-05-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 045, 352 words , ENTERTAINMENT
A Doll's House Where and when: St Martin's Theatre, Victorian College of the Arts, until June 1 FINAL-year drama college productions are often good - but rarely this good. The Victorian College of the Arts production of Heinrich Ibsen's A Doll's Hous...

   DABBLE IN A DREAM   Herald Sun, 25-05-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 032, 333 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Away by Michael Gow MTC Schools Season The narrative spies on the summer holidays of three families tenuously connected through a school production of Midsummer Night's Dream. Teenagers Tom and Meg (Simon Russell and Jennifer Priest) have a mutual cr...

   WAILS OF LOVE   Herald Sun, 18-05-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 035, 332 words , ENTERTAINMENT
Banshee Where and when: La Mama/Courthouse Theatre; until June 1 WHEN a banshee screams it warns of a death in the household. In Jodi Gallagher's Banshee, two die: father Collum and daughter Imogen, played by Kirk Alexander and Caroline Bock. It is n...

   BIG TEST OF CHARACTER   Herald Sun, 04-05-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 037, 254 words , ENTERTAINMENT
A MONODRAMA is one of the most testing forms for an actor. Damien, performed by Daniel Kyle, is a solo piece of theatre based on the extraordinary life of a Belgian priest. Father Damien, who was beatified last year, single-handedly ran a leper colon...

   RUSSIAN ROULETTE   Herald Sun, 27-04-1996, Ed: 2, Pg: 028, 391 words , ENTERTAINMENT
The 8.16 Vodka Syndrome Actor Jim Daly was astonished and the audience confused but the incident did little to dampen a vigorous, entertaining show that is epic in style and, at a duration of 21/2 hours, length. The 30-odd characters are played by Da...  

Kelly's Reign, Dec 1, 1996


By Hume Theatre Company
At Theatreworks until Dec 15, 1996
Reviewed by KH around Dec 1, 1996


When writing The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov purposely placed the railway station five miles away so that his naturalistic director Stanislavski, could not use train sound effects. It is a pity Chekhov was not dramaturg for Kelly's Reign.

They "seek to modernise the theatre space" but use a naturalistic set of knocked together wooden huts, woodchips and logs. They abandoned a 1943 "antiquated text" by Douglas Stewart, wanting to update but have created an over-written melodrama. The concern that "women were completely left out" of the original is not addressed. They remain incidental in a play with more testosterone on stage than a gymnasium weights room.

In this production about super-highwayman, Ned, sound effects rule. Constant, taped, out of sync gunfire with period pistols and costumes give an unhappy impression of playground Cowboys and Indians. This, unfortunately is not the only flaw.

The company of fourteen actors and five live musicians have great commitment and energy but the end result is some passable acting in  a very dated style of production. There is an enormous amount of work in this show but they kept breaking cardinal rules.

One stated intention is to "meld the world of film and popular culture" but they confuse film with theatre. Opening with interminable video credits (all in the program anyway) unnecessarily delays the start. Every scene is preceded by video "newsflash" rolling text and voice-over which under-estimates the audience's capacity for gleaning subtleties. Video images were often running invisibly in full light.

The music is enjoyable bush balladry but holds up the action in the 135 minutes. Three co-writers (Michael Hurse, Nicholas Reid, Richard Sutherland) have tried valiantly to touch us but have missed any genuine emotional level.

Both text and performance lack depth. Any dramatic tension is dissipated by noisy overkill of guns, deaths and running about. The director attempts to shock with burnt flesh on video, stunt deaths, boys kissing, but it ends up producing a melodrama with dancin', drinkin', cussin', shootin', yellin' and killin'- all in Irish accents.
I want to be encouraging. Perhaps a shift towards the abstract, which happens for a fleeting moment at the end, could salvage this piece. It is a valiant effort but it has not worked.  

KATE HERBERT   

Double or Nothing, Dec 1, 1996


By  $5 Theatre
Napier St Theatre until Dec, 1997
Reviewed by Kate Herbert round Dec 1, 1997

Funny isn't it how official and government bodies now call "Gambling" "Gaming". By simply dropping a couple of letters we lose the disease, the social ill, the family problem.

It is no longer a matter of luck or loss, fortune or misfortune. It is a Game! It's Fun! Thank you, Jeff, for saving us from such painful definition. We feel much better losing our salaries now.

$5 Theatre Company's latest devised show focuses on gambling, probability, chance, superstition and Crown Casino. It reverts to the old "agit-prop" (Agitational Propaganda) style of theatre that was very popular in the 70's in Britain and harks back to Leftist theatre all over Europe. It is simple in form but leaves one thinking in the truly Brechtian way. It is light and entertaining employing a series of vignettes, tableaux, and direct engagements with the audience. It even runs a real horse race complete with TAB tickets and audience winners and losers.

But, in spite of its light touch, we cannot leave blithely. It has an uncannily discomfiting after-bite. It clearly triggered after-show discussion of a political nature. The old-boy private school network of John Elliot, Kerry Packer, Lloyd Williams and Ron Walker (all responsible for Crown), wields enormous public and clandestine power.

 The casino is robbing the public blind. Casinos never lose. Punters lose. The government may be taking taxes from gambling, sorry, gaming bodies such as TAB and Crown but the losses are still incurred by the people of Victoria.  This state is eating its own young.

The political satire, the comfortable chat of the actors and their accessibility allow us to be lulled into a false sense of having seen something inconsequential but the didactic is at work on our little psyches. Clever old $5.

The one piece of realism in the show is Seamus, the recovering compulsive gambler who confesses his dreadful but all too credible sins directly to us.

This is the stuff of great human drama but naturalism is not the core of this piece. $5 do not want us absorbed in a single emotional drama, a private torment of one man. They want to leave us thinking and screaming for change. Perhaps Kennett has done us one favour. We may have some theatre that challenges the status quo.
KATE HERBERT